# Disjoint Sets

    disjoint_sets<Rank, Parent, FindCompress>

This is class that provides disjoint sets operations with union by rank and path compression. A disjoint-sets data structure maintains a collection S = {S1, S2, ..., Sk} of disjoint sets. Each set is identified by a representative which is some member of of the set. Sets are represented by rooted trees which are encoded in the `Parent` property map. Two heuristics: "union by rank" and "path compression" are used to speed up the operations [1, 2].

### Where Defined

`boost/disjoint_sets.hpp`

### Template Parameters

`Rank` | must be a model of ReadWritePropertyMap with an integer value type and a key type equal to the set's element type.
`Parent` | must be a model of ReadWritePropertyMap and the key and value type the same as the set's element type.
`FindCompress` | should be one of the find representative and path compress function objects.

### Example

A typical usage pattern for `disjoint_sets` can be seen in the `kruskal_minimum_spanning_tree()` algorithm. In this example, we call `link()` instead of `union_set()` because `u` and `v` were obtained from `find_set()` and therefore are already the representatives for their sets.

      ...
      disjoint_sets<Rank, Parent, FindCompress> dsets(rank, p);

      for (ui  = vertices(G).first; ui != vertices(G).second; ++ui)
        dsets.make_set(*ui);
      ...
      while ( !Q.empty() ) {
        e = Q.front();
        Q.pop();
        u = dsets.find_set(source(e));
        v = dsets.find_set(target(e));
        if ( u != v ) {
          *out++ = e;
          dsets.link(u, v);
        }
      }

### Members

Member | Description
--- | ---
`disjoint_sets(Rank r, Parent p)` | Constructor.
`disjoint_sets(const disjoint_sets& x)` | Copy constructor.
`template <class Element> void make_set(Element x)` | Creates a singleton set containing Element `x`.
`template <class Element> void link(Element x, Element y)` | Union the two sets represented by element `x` and `y`.
`template <class Element> void union_set(Element x, Element y)` | Union the two sets that contain elements `x` and `y`. This is equivalent to `link(find_set(x),find_set(y))`.
`template <class Element> Element find_set(Element x)` | Return the representative for the set containing element `x`.
`template <class ElementIterator> std::size_t count_sets(ElementIterator first, ElementIterator last)` | Returns the number of disjoint sets.
`template <class ElementIterator> void compress_sets(ElementIterator first, ElementIterator last)` | Flatten the parents tree so that the parent of every element is its representative.

### Complexity

The time complexity is O(m alpha(m,n)), where alpha is the inverse Ackermann's function, m is the number of disjoint-set operations (`make_set()`, `find_set()`, and `link()` and n is the number of elements. The alpha function grows very slowly, much more slowly than the log function.

### See Also

`incremental_connected_components()`

    disjoint_sets_with_storage<ID,InverseID,FindCompress>

This class manages the storage for the rank and parent properties internally. The storage is in arrays, which are indexed by element ID, hence the requirement for the `ID` and `InverseID` functors. The rank and parent properties are initialized during construction so the each element is in a set by itself (so it is not necessary to initialize objects of this class with the `initialize_incremental_components()` function). This class is especially useful when computing the (dynamic) connected components of an `edge_list` graph which does not provide a place to store vertex properties.

### Template Parameters

Parameter | Description | Default
--- | --- | ---
`ID` | must be a model of ReadablePropertyMap that maps elements to integers between zero 0 and N, the total number of elements in the sets. | `boost::identity_property_map`
`InverseID` | must be a model of ReadablePropertyMap that maps integers to elements. | `boost::identity_property_map`
`FindCompress` | should be one of the find representative and path compress function objects. | `representative_with_full_path_compression`

### Members

This class has all of the members in `disjoint_sets` as well as the following members.

    disjoint_sets_with_storage(size_type n = 0,
                               ID id = ID(),
                               InverseID inv = InverseID())

Constructor.

    template <class ElementIterator>
    void disjoint_sets_with_storage::
      normalize_sets(ElementIterator first, ElementIterator last)

This rearranges the representatives such that the representative of each set is the element with the smallest ID.
Postcondition: `v >= parent[v]`
Precondition: the disjoint sets structure must be compressed.

##

    representative_with_path_halving<Parent>

This is a functor which finds the representative vertex for the same component as the element `x`. While traversing up the representative tree, the functor also applies the path halving technique to shorten the height of the tree.

    Element operator()(Parent p, Element x)

##

    representative_with_full_path_compression<Parent>

This is a functor which finds the representative element for the set that element `x` belongs to.

    Element operator()(Parent p, Element x)

Revised 01 December, 2006

Copyright © 2000 | Jeremy Siek, Univ.of Notre Dame (jsiek@lsc.nd.edu) Lie-Quan Lee, Univ.of Notre Dame (llee1@lsc.nd.edu) Andrew Lumsdaine, Univ.of Notre Dame (lums@lsc.nd.edu)

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)