Depth-First Search and Linear Graph Algorithms

Abstract. The value of depth-first search or bacltracking as a technique for solving problems is illustrated by two examples. An improved version of an algorithm for finding the strongly connected components of a directed graph and ar algorithm for finding the biconnected components of an undirect graph are presented. The space and time requirements of both algorithms are bounded by k 1V + k2E d- k for some constants kl, k2, and k a, where Vis the number of vertices and E is the number of edges of the graph being examined.