Graphs
Depth-First Search (Recursive)
Visit a start vertex, then recurse into its first unvisited neighbour all
the way down before backtracking. A visited set prevents revisiting, and
neighbour insertion order fixes the visit sequence.
Algorithm
On the canonical 6-vertex graph from graph-adjacency-list, starting at
vertex 1, the deterministic visit order is [1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6]. Calls
unwind 6 -> 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1 after all vertices are visited.
recursive descent
Follow one branch to its end, then unwind and try the next neighbour.
Visual walkthrough
Basic Implementation
basic.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
class Program {
static Dictionary<int, List<int>> adj = new Dictionary<int, List<int>>();
static HashSet<int> visited = new HashSet<int>();
static List<int> order = new List<int>();
static void Dfs(int v) {
visited.Add(v);
order.Add(v);
foreach (int nb in adj[v]) {
if (!visited.Contains(nb)) {
Dfs(nb);
}
}
}
static void Main() {
adj[1] = new List<int> { 2, 3 };
adj[2] = new List<int> { 1, 4 };
adj[3] = new List<int> { 1, 4 };
adj[4] = new List<int> { 2, 3, 5 };
adj[5] = new List<int> { 4, 6 };
adj[6] = new List<int> { 5 };
Dfs(1);
Console.WriteLine("[" + string.Join(", ", order) + "]");
}
}
Complexity
- Time: O(V + E)
- Space: O(V) recursion depth
Implementation notes
- C#: a recursive static
Dfsover staticadj,visited, andorder;string.Joinrenders the list. - The replay shows the current vertex, the visited set, and the running visit order after each entry, matching the lesson spec.