/* Breadth-first approach can be applied to determine the shortest path between two nodes in an unweighted graph. It searches the target node among all neighbors of the starting node. Then the process is repeated on the level of the neighbors of the neighbors and so on. (See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadth-first_search ) (see also: https://www.koderdojo.com/blog/breadth-first-search-and-shortest-path-in-csharp-and-net-core ) */ /* Doctests > breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'C', 'E') [ 'C', 'D', 'A', 'B', 'E' ] > breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'E', 'B') [ 'E', 'D', 'A', 'B' ] > breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'F', 'G') [ 'F', 'G' ] > breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'A', 'G') [] */ function breadthFirstShortestPath (graph, startNode, targetNode) { // check if startNode & targetNode are identical if (startNode === targetNode) { return [startNode] } // visited keeps track of all nodes visited const visited = new Set() // queue contains the paths to be explored in the future const initialPath = [startNode] const queue = [initialPath] while (queue.length > 0) { // start with the queue's first path const path = queue.shift() const node = path[path.length - 1] // explore this node if it hasn't been visited yet if (!visited.has(node)) { // mark the node as visited visited.add(node) const neighbors = graph[node] // create a new path in the queue for each neighbor for (let i = 0; i < neighbors.length; i++) { const newPath = path.concat([neighbors[i]]) // the first path to contain the target node is the shortest path if (neighbors[i] === targetNode) { return newPath } // queue the new path queue.push(newPath) } } } // the target node was not reachable return [] } const graph = { A: ['B', 'D'], B: ['E'], C: ['D'], D: ['A'], E: ['D'], F: ['G'], G: [] } /* A <-> B ĘŚ | | | v v C --> D <-- E F --> G */ console.log(breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'C', 'E')) console.log(breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'E', 'B')) console.log(breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'F', 'G')) console.log(breadthFirstShortestPath(graph, 'A', 'G'))