Graph Coloring

Graph coloring problem is a special case of graph labeling. In this problem, each node is colored into some colors. But coloring has some constraints. We cannot use the same color for any adjacent vertices.

For solving this problem, we need to use the greedy algorithm, but it does not guaranty to use minimum color.

Input and Output

Input:
Adjacency matrix of the graph.
0 0 1 0 1
0 0 1 1 1
1 1 0 1 0
0 1 1 0 1
1 1 0 1 0

Output:
Node: 0, Assigned with Color: 0
Node: 1, Assigned with Color: 0
Node: 2, Assigned with Color: 1
Node: 3, Assigned with Color: 2
Node: 4, Assigned with Color: 1

Algorithm

graphColoring(graph)

Input − The given graph.

Output − Each node with some color assigned to it.

Begin
   declare a list of colors
   initially set the color 0 for first node
   define an array colorUsed to track which color is used, and which colors have never used.

   for all vertices i except first one, do
      mark i as unassigned to any color
   done

   mark colorUsed to false for all vertices
   for all vertices u in the graph except 1st vertex, do
      for all vertex v adjacent with u, do
         if color[v] is unassigned, then
            mark colorUsed[color[v]] := true
      done

      for all colors col in the color list, do
         if color is not used, then
            stop the loop
      done

      color[u] := col
      for each vertex v which is adjacent with u, do
         if color[v] is unassigned, then
            colorUsed[color[v]] := false
      done
   done

   for all vertices u in the graph, do
      display the node and its color
   done
End

Example

#include<iostream>
#define NODE 6
using namespace std;

int graph[NODE][NODE] = {
   {0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0},
   {1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0},
   {1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1},
   {1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1},
   {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1},
   {0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0}
};

void graphColoring() {
   int color[NODE];
   color[0] = 0;    //Assign first color for the first node
   bool colorUsed[NODE];    //Used to check whether color is used or not

   for(int i = 1; i<NODE; i++)
      color[i] = -1;    //initialize all other vertices are unassigned

   for(int i = 0; i<NODE; i++)
      colorUsed[i] = false;    //initially any colors are not chosen
         
   for(int u = 1; u<NODE; u++) {    //for all other NODE - 1 vertices
      for(int v = 0; v<NODE; v++) {
         if(graph[u][v]){
            if(color[v] != -1)    //when one color is assigned, make it unavailable
               colorUsed[color[v]] = true;
         }
     }

     int col;
     for(col = 0; col<NODE; col++)
        if(!colorUsed[col])    //find a color which is not assigned
           break;
         
     color[u] = col;    //assign found color in the list
         
     for(int v = 0; v<NODE; v++) {    //for next iteration make color availability to false
        if(graph[u][v]) {
           if(color[v] != -1)
              colorUsed[color[v]] = false;
        }
     }  
  }
   
  for(int u = 0; u<NODE; u++)
     cout <<"Color: " << u << ", Assigned with Color: " <<color[u] <<endl;
}

main() {
   graphColoring();
}

Output

Node: 0, Assigned with Color: 0
Node: 1, Assigned with Color: 0
Node: 2, Assigned with Color: 1
Node: 3, Assigned with Color: 2
Node: 4, Assigned with Color: 1