Dijkstra’s Algorithm — An Overview

Understand the Basics of Dijkstra’s Algorithm with examples in C, C++, Java, Python, and GOlang | Karthikeyan Nagaraj

Karthikeyan Nagaraj

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Feb 20, 2023

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What is Dijkstra’s Algorithm and How it Works?

• Dijkstra’s Algorithm is a graph algorithm used to find the shortest path between two nodes in a weighted graph. A weighted graph is a graph in which each edge has a weight or cost.
• Dijkstra’s Algorithm is a well-known algorithm in computer science that is used to solve the shortest path problem in a graph
• This algorithm was developed by Edsger W. Dijkstra in 1956 and has been widely used ever since.
• The algorithm uses a greedy approach to solve the problem.
• It starts from the source node and considers the neighboring nodes, calculating the cost of reaching them from the source node.
• The algorithm selects the node with the lowest cost and adds it to the list of visited nodes. The process continues until the destination node is reached.

Algorithm

1. Create a set of unvisited nodes and set the distance of each node from the source node to infinity, except for the source node, which is set to zero.