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Algorithms

Topics: Biconnected Components

Biconnected Components
Problems Tutorial

Pre-Requisite: Articulation Points

Before Biconnected Components, let's first try to understand what a Biconnected Graph is and how to check if a given graph is
Biconnected or not.

A graph is said to be Biconnected if:

1. It is connected, i.e. it is possible to reach every vertex from every other vertex, by a simple path.
2. Even after removing any vertex the graph remains connected.

For example, consider the graph in the following figure

The given graph is clearly connected. Now try removing the vertices one by one and observe. Removing any of the vertices
does not increase the number of connected components. So the given graph is Biconnected.
Now consider the following graph which is a slight modification in the previous graph.

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In the above graph if the vertex 2 is removed, then here's how it will look:

Clearly the number of connected components have increased. Similarly, if vertex 3 is removed there will be no path left to reach
vertex 0
from any of the vertices 1, 2, 4 or 5. And same goes for vertex 4 and 1. Removing vertex 4 will disconnect 1 from all other
vertices 0, 2, 3 and
4. So the graph is not Biconnected.

Now what to look for in a graph to check if it's Biconnected. By now it is said that a graph is Biconnected if it has no vertex such
that its
removal increases the number of connected components in the graph. And if there exists such a vertex then it is not
Biconnected. A vertex whose removal increases the number of connected components is called an Articulation Point.

So simply check if the given graph has any articulation point or not. If it has no articulation point then it is Biconnected otherwise
not. Here's the pseudo code:

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time = 0
function isBiconnected(vertex, adj[][], low[], disc[], parent[], visited[], V)
disc[vertex]=low[vertex]=time+1
time = time + 1
visited[vertex]=true

child = 0
for i = 0 to V
if adj[vertex][i] ==
true if visited[i]
== false
child = child + 1
parent[i] = vertex
result = isBiconnected(i, adj, low, disc, visited, V, time)
if result == false
return false
low[vertex] = minimum(low[vertex], low[i])
if parent[vertex] == nil AND child > 1
return false
if parent[vertex] != nil AND low[i] >= disc[vertex]
return false
else if parent[vertex] != i
low[vertex] = minimum(disc[i], low[vertex])
return true

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The code above is exactly same as that for Articulation Point with one difference that it returns false as soon as it finds an
Articulation Point.
The image below shows how the DFS tree will look like for the graph in Fig. 2 according to the algorithm, along with the value
of the arrays and .

Clearly for vertex 4 and its child 1, , so that means 4 is an articulation point. The algorithm returns false as soon as it
discovers that 4 is an articulation point and will not go on to check for vertices 0, 2 and 3. Value of for all vertices is just
shown for clarification.
Following image shows DFS tree, value of arrays and for graph in Fig.1

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Clearly there does not exists any vertex , such that , i.e. the graph has no articulation point, so the algorithm
returns true, that means the graph is Biconnected.

Now let's move on to Biconnected Components. For a given graph, a Biconnected Component, is one of its subgraphs which is
Biconnected. For example for the graph given in Fig. 2 following are 4 biconnected components in the graph

Biconnected components in a graph can be determined by using the previous algorithm with a slight modification. And that
modification is to maintain a Stack of edges. Keep adding edges to the stack in the order they are visited and when an
articulation point is detected i.e. say a vertex has a child such that no vertex in the subtree rooted at
has a back edge ( ) then pop and print all the edges in the stack till the is found, as all those edges

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will form one biconnected component.

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time = 0
function DFS(vertex, adj[][], low[], disc[], parent[], visited[], V, stack)
disc[vertex]=low[vertex]=time+1
time = time + 1
visited[vertex]=true
child = 0
for i = 0 to V
if adj[vertex][i] ==
true if visited[i]
== false
child = child + 1
push edge(u,v) to stack
parent[i] = vertex
DFS(i, adj, low, disc, visited, V, time, stack)
low[vertex] = minimum(low[vertex], low[i])
if parent[vertex] == nil AND child > 1
while last element of stack != (u,v)
print last element of stack
pop from stack
print last element of stack
pop from stack
if parent[vertex] != nil AND low[i] >= disc[vertex]
while last element of stack != (u,v)
print last element of stack
pop from stack
print last element of stack
pop from stack
else if parent[vertex] != i AND disc[i] < low[vertex]
low[vertex] = disc[i]
push edge(u,v) to stack

fuction biconnected_components(adj[][], V)
for i = 0 to V
if visited[i] == false
DFS(i, adj, low, disc, parent, visited, V, time, stack)
while stack is not empty
print last element of stack
pop from stack

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Let's see how it works for graph shown in Fig.2.
First it finds is false so it starts with vertex 0 and first discovers the edge 0-3 and pushes it in the stack.

Then with 3 it finds the edge 3-2 and pushes that in stack

With 2 it finds the edge 2-4 and pushes that in stack

For 4 it first finds edge 4-1 and pushes that in stack

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It then discovers the fact that i.e. discovers that 4 is an articulation point. So all the edges inserted after the
edge 4-1 along with edge 4-1 will form first biconnected component. So it pops and print the edges till last edge is 4-1 and
then prints that too and pop it from the stack
Then it discovers the edge 4-5 and pushes that in stack

For 5 it discovers the back edge 5-2 and pushes that in stack

After that no more edge is connected to 5 so it goes back to 4. For 4 also no more edge is connected and also .
Then it goes back to 2 and discovers that , that means 2 is an articulation point. That means all the edges inserted after
the edge 4-2 along with the edge 4-2 will form the second biconnected component. So it print and pop all the edges till last
edge is 4-2 and then print and pop that too.

Then it goes to 3 and discovers that 3 is an articulation point as so it print and pops till last edge is 3-2 and the
print and pop that too. That will form the third biconnected component.

Now finally it discovers that for edge 0-3 also so it pops it from the stack and print it as the fourth
biconnected component.
Then it checks value of other vertices and as for all vertices it is true so the algorithm
terminates. So ulitmately the algorithm discovers all the 4 biconnected components shown in
Fig.6.
Time complexity of the algorithm is same as that of DFS. If is the number of vertices and is the
number of edges then complexity is
.

Contributed by: Vaibhav Jaimini

Did you find this tutorial helpful? Yes No

TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING

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Biconnected Components

Given a graph having N vertices and M edges, count the number of biconnected components having odd number of vertices and
even
number of vertices.

Input:
First line consists of two space separated integers N and M.
M lines follow each containing two space separated integers X and Y denoting there is an edge between vertices X and Y.

Output:
Print two space separated integers where first integer denotes the number of biconnected components having odd number of
vertices and
second integer denotes number of biconnected components having even number of vertices.

Constraints:
1 ≤ N ≤ 10
1≤M≤
0≤ <N

SAMPLE INPUT

4 4
0 1
1 2
2 3
3 1

SAMPLE OUTPUT

1 1

Enter your code or Upload your code as file. Save C (gcc 10.3)

1 #include <stdio.h>
2
3 int main(){
4 int num;
5 scanf("%d", &num); // Reading input from STDIN
6 printf("Input number is %d.\ num); // Writing output to STDOUT
n",
7 }

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