A shortest path between two graph vertices of a graph (Skiena 1990, p. 225).
There may be more than one different shortest paths, all of the same length. Graph
geodesics may be found using a breadth-first
traversal (Moore 1959) or using Dijkstra's
algorithm (Skiena 1990, p. 225). One (of possibly several) graph geodesics
of a graph
from vertex
to vertex
can be found in the Wolfram Language
using FindShortestPath[g,
u, v]. The length of the graph geodesic between these points
is called the graph distance
between
and
.
The length of the maximum geodesic in a given graph is called the graph diameter, and the length of the minimum geodesic is called the graph radius.
The matrix
consisting of all graph distances from vertex
to vertex
is known as the all-pairs shortest path matrix, or more
simply, the graph distance matrix.
A graph which possesses a unique geodesic between every pair of vertices is known as a geodetic graph.