[Tex/LaTex] what is a quick generic way to draw graphs (in the graph theory sense)

graphicstechnical-drawingtikz-arrows

I am looking for a very simple way to write a command for drawing (undirected or direct) graphs in Latex. I am aware of tikz, but it is an overkill for what I want, especially since I want the .tex file to have easy to understand logical form.

All I want is to specify a set of nodes (or just the number of nodes), a possible label for some of the nodes, and the set of edges. $G=(V,E)$ in the usual sense with labelings for $V$.

I don't mind too much what the graph looks like as long as it is logically correct.

EDIT: For example, I would specify a graph using:

  \begin{undirectedgraph}
   \Nodes[5]{a,b,c,d,e}
   \Edge{1,5}
   \Edge{4,3}
  \end{undirectedgraph}

and that would draw a graph with 5 nodes, labeled a-e with edges between vertex 1 and 5 and 4 and 3.

Best Answer

Not sure why TikZ is considered overkill. The following looks quite straight forward, although it requires LuaLaTeX:

\documentclass[tikz,border=5]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{graphs,graphdrawing,arrows.meta}
\usegdlibrary{circular}
\begin{document}
\tikz[>=Stealth]\graph [simple necklace layout, nodes={circle, draw}, node sep=1cm]{
  a, b, c, d, e;
  a -> e;
  d -> c;
};
\end{document}

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] tikz-cd Extra arrow tip with start anchor on edge v0.9b

edge is a bit of a strange beast, and you need to use to here instead:

Sample output

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{amsmath} 
\usepackage{tikz-cd}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}

\title{}
\date{}                                          
\tikzset{
   commutative diagrams/.cd,
   arrow style = tikz,
   diagrams={>=latex}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[commutative diagrams/every diagram,column sep = 3em]
       \matrix (m) [matrix of math nodes, nodes in empty cells]{
       |(A)|A\\
       |(B)|B\\
       };
       \draw[commutative diagrams/.cd, every arrow, every label,dashed] 
          (B.north east) to [bend right, dashed] (A.east);
       \draw[commutative diagrams/.cd, every arrow, every label] 
          (B) edge [bend left] (A.west);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I think what is happending with the edge is that there are two paths, the first a very short one from (B) to (B.north east). But I haven't yet be able to verify this.

Update: thanks to the pointer to https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/82495/15925 from Torbjørn T. this is indeed the case. In your code the main path, i.e. with the edge parts removed, is

   \draw[commutative diagrams/.cd, every arrow, every label,dashed] 
      (B.north east)
      (B);

which in the above code produces

Test output

with the strangely placed arrowhead you experienced.

The full code for this last diagram is:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{amsmath} 
\usepackage{tikz-cd}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}

\title{}
\date{}                                          
\tikzset{
   commutative diagrams/.cd,
   arrow style = tikz,
   diagrams={>=latex}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[commutative diagrams/every diagram,column sep = 3em]
       \matrix (m) [matrix of math nodes, nodes in empty cells]{
       |(A)|A\\
       |(B)|B\\
       };
       \draw[commutative diagrams/.cd, every arrow, every label,dashed] 
          (B.north east)
          (B);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Typing Complete Graphs with edge and vertex label

You can use TikZ and its amazing graph library for this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{graphs,graphs.standard}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \graph { subgraph K_n [n=8,clockwise,radius=2cm] };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

output

You can also add edge labels very easily:

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{graphs,graphs.standard,quotes}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \graph[circular placement, radius=4cm,
         empty nodes, nodes={circle,draw}] {
    \foreach \x in {a,...,f} {
      \foreach \y in {\x,...,f} {
        \x -- \y;
      };
    };
    a --["3"'] b;
    a --["2"' near start] c;
    a --["1", near start] e;
    a --["1",] f;
    e --["2"'] f;
  };
  \foreach \x [count=\idx from 0] in {a,...,f} {
    \pgfmathparse{90 + \idx * (360 / 6)}
    \node at (\pgfmathresult:4.4cm) {\x};
  };
  \draw (a) edge[red, thick] node[black,left,pos=.2] {1} (d);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

output

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] tikz-cd Extra arrow tip with start anchor on edge v0.9b

[Tex/LaTex] Typing Complete Graphs with edge and vertex label

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