Iterative DFS with stack-based graph traversal (2024)
3 days ago
- #DFS
- #Algorithms
- #Graph Traversal
- Iterative DFS can be implemented using a stack to avoid call stack overflow.
- A common mistake is to replace the queue in BFS with a stack, thinking it will perform DFS, but this leads to incorrect traversal.
- Proper DFS requires careful handling of the stack to ensure vertices are visited in the correct order.
- Two correct methods for iterative DFS: using a stack of iterators or pushing all neighbors and checking visited status upon popping.
- The stack-based traversal that incorrectly mimics DFS results in non-tree edges that don't connect ancestors and descendants.
- DFS and BFS have specific properties regarding edge connections in their search trees, which are crucial for algorithms like Kosaraju's and Tarjan's.
- The blog post provides Python code examples illustrating correct and incorrect implementations of DFS.