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Data Structures

The document discusses the disjoint-set union (DSU) data structure, which can track connectivity between elements. It is used to perform union and find operations on sets. Union connects two elements, while find checks if two elements are connected. The document provides an example of using a DSU to track friend connections between 5 people and determine the disconnected subsets. It also demonstrates implementing DSU with an array to track connectivity and perform union and find operations on a set of 10 elements.

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Honeygrace Singh
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27 views

Data Structures

The document discusses the disjoint-set union (DSU) data structure, which can track connectivity between elements. It is used to perform union and find operations on sets. Union connects two elements, while find checks if two elements are connected. The document provides an example of using a DSU to track friend connections between 5 people and determine the disconnected subsets. It also demonstrates implementing DSU with an array to track connectivity and perform union and find operations on a set of 10 elements.

Uploaded by

Honeygrace Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basics of Disjoint Data Structures

The efficiency of an algorithm sometimes depends on the data structure that is used. An efficient
data structure, like the disjoint-set-union, can reduce the execution time of an algorithm.

Assume that you have a set of N elements that are into further subsets and you have to track the
connectivity of each element in a specific subset or connectivity of subsets with each other. You
can use the union-find algorithm (disjoint set union) to achieve this.

Let’s say there are 5 people A, B, C, D, and E.


A is B's friend, B is C's friend, and D is E's friend, therefore, the following is true:

1. A, B, and C are connected to each other


2. D and E are connected to each other

You can use the union-find data structure to check each friend is connected to the other directly
or indirectly. You can also determine the two different disconnected subsets. Here, 2 different
subsets are {A, B, C} and {D, E}.

You have to perform two operations:

1. Union(A, B): Connect two elements A and B


2. Find(A, B): Find whether the two elements A and B are connected

Example You have a set of elements S = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}. Here there are 10 elements
(N = 10). Use an array arr to manage the connectivity of the elements. Arr[ ] that is indexed by
elements of sets, which are of size N (as N elements in set), can be used to manage the
operations of union and find.

Assumption

A and B objects are connected only if arr[ A ] = arr[ B ].

Implementation

To implement the operations of union and find, do the following:

1. Find(A, B): Check whether arr[ A ] = arr[ B ]


2. Union(A, B): Connect A to B and merge the components that comprise A and B by
replacing elements that have a value of arr[ A ] with the value of arr[ B ].

Initially there are 10 subsets and each subset has one element in it.

When each subset contains only one element, the array arr is as follows:
Let’s perform some operations.

1. Union(2, 1)

The arr is as follows:

1. Union(4, 3)
2. Union(8, 4)
3. Union(9, 3)

The arr is as follows:

1. Union(6, 5)
The arr is as follows:

After performing some operations of Union (A ,B), there are now 5 subsets as follows:

1. First subset comprises the elements {3, 4, 8, 9}


2. Second subset comprises the elements {1, 2}
3. Third subset comprises the elements {5, 6}
4. Fourth subset comprises the elements {0}
5. Fifth subset comprises the elements {7}

The elements of a subset, which are connected to each other directly or indirectly, can be
considered as the nodes of a graph. Therefore, all these subsets are called connected
components.

The union-find data structure is useful in graphs for performing various operations like
connecting nodes, finding connected components etc.

Let’s perform some find(A, B) operations.

1. Find(0, 7): 0 and 7 are disconnected, and therefore, you will get a false result
2. Find(8, 9): Although 8 and 9 are not connected directly, there is a path that connects both
the elements, and therefore, you will get a true result

When these operations are viewed in terms of components, then:

1. Union(A, B): Replace components that comprise the two objects A and B with their union
2. Find(A, B): Check whether the two objects A and B are in the same component

If you perform the operation union(5, 2) on the components mentioned above, then it will be as
follows:
The arr is as follows:

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