Dijkstra's Algorithm

Dijkstra's algorithm, conceived by Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra in 1956 and published in 1959, is a graph search algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a graph with nonnegative edge path costs, producing a shortest path tree. This algorithm is often used in routing and as a subroutine in other graph algorithms.

For a given source vertex (node) in the graph, the algorithm finds the path with lowest cost (i.e. the shortest path) between that vertex and every other vertex. It can also be used for finding costs of shortest paths from a single vertex to a single destination vertex by stopping the algorithm once the shortest path to the destination vertex has been determined. For example, if the vertices of the graph represent cities and edge path costs represent driving distances between pairs of cities connected by a direct road, Dijkstra's algorithm can be used to find the shortest route between one city and all other cities. As a result, the shortest path first is widely used in network routing protocols, most notably IS-IS and OSPF (Open Shortest Path First).

Dijkstra's original algorithm does not use a min-priority queue and runs in . The idea of this algorithm is also given in (Leyzorek et al. 1957). The implementation based on a min-priority queue implemented by a Fibonacci heap and running in is due to (Fredman & Tarjan 1984). This is asymptotically the fastest known single-source shortest-path algorithm for arbitrary directed graphs with unbounded nonnegative weights.