Directed Acyclic Graph

What Does Directed Acyclic Graph Mean?

In computer science and mathematics, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) is a graph that is directed and without cycles connecting the other edges. This means that it is impossible to traverse the entire graph starting at one edge. The edges of the directed graph only go one way. The graph is a topological sorting, where each node is in a certain order.

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Techopedia Explains Directed Acyclic Graph

In graph theory, a graph is a series of vertexes connected by edges. In a directed graph, the edges are connected so that each edge only goes one way. A directed acyclic graph means that the graph is not cyclic, or that it is impossible to start at one point in the graph and traverse the entire graph. Each edge is directed from an earlier edge to a later edge. This is also known as a topological ordering of a graph.

A spreadsheet may be represented as a directed acyclic graph, with each cell a vertex and an edge connected a cell when a formula references another cell. Other applications include scheduling, circuit design and Bayesian networks.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…