Route Inspection Problem - Solution

Solution

If a graph has an Eulerian circuit (or an Eulerian path), then an Eulerian circuit (or path) visits every edge, and so the solution is to choose any Eulerian circuit (or path).

If the graph is not Eulerian, it must contain vertices of odd degree. By the handshaking lemma, there must be an even number of these vertices. To solve the postman problem we first find a smallest T-join. We make the graph Eulerian by doubling of the T-join. The solution to the postman problem in the original graph is obtained by finding an Eulerian circuit for the new graph.

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