Topological Sorting vs Depth First Traversal (DFS)
In DFS, we print a vertex and then recursively call DFS for its adjacent vertices. In topological sorting, we need to print a vertex before its adjacent vertices.
For example, In the above given graph, the vertex ‘5’ should be printed before vertex ‘0’, but unlike DFS, the vertex ‘4’ should also be printed before vertex ‘0’. So Topological sorting is different from DFS. For example, a DFS of the shown graph is “5 2 3 1 0 4”, but it is not a topological sorting.
Topological Sorting
Topological sorting for Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) is a linear ordering of vertices such that for every directed edge u-v, vertex u comes before v in the ordering.
Note: Topological Sorting for a graph is not possible if the graph is not a DAG.
Example:
Input: Graph :
Output: 5 4 2 3 1 0
Explanation: The first vertex in topological sorting is always a vertex with an in-degree of 0 (a vertex with no incoming edges). A topological sorting of the following graph is “5 4 2 3 1 0”. There can be more than one topological sorting for a graph. Another topological sorting of the following graph is “4 5 2 3 1 0”.
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