Create slide with graph in beamer

Question

I am using beamer to create talks. I need to create a slide with a graph. Are there ways to create graphs in LaTeX or should create a picture somewhere and add a picture to a slide?

Edit: Oh, sorry for confusion. I meant this kind of graph:

Answer 1

I recommend that you take a look at Graphviz for constructing graphs of any kind. The language is simple to grasp if you're used to dealing with graphs. In fact, the graph on the wikipedia page was made using Graphviz!

You can then use dot2tex to generate TikZ code which you can use in your beamer presentation with all the LaTeX prettiness.

Below is a graph written in dot (the Graphviz language), and then processed with dot2tex and Graphviz.

This uses the code for the first graph on the wikipedia page you link to.

Answer 2

You could use tkz-graph.sty and tkz-berge.sty, which are build in top of tikz. I have some examples with code in my blog: Graph Theory in LaTeX. For example:

Answer 3

The following is a minimal example from LaTeX and Friends. You may also find this example in the lecture presentation about data plots.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[fragile]
   \frametitle{Bar Graphs}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.85]
\begin{axis}[xbar,tick align=outside,
             width=11cm,
             height=8cm,
             bar width={10pt},
             enlargelimits=0.13,
             nodes near coords,
             nodes near coords align=horizontal,
             point meta=x * 1, % The displayed number.
             xlabel=\textbf{Number of Finals Won},
             xtick={0,5,...,35},
             ytick={1,...,13},
             yticklabels={Kerry,Laois,London,Waterford,Clare,Offaly,
                      Galway,Wexford,Dublin,Limerick,Tipperary,Cork,Kilkenny}
            ]
\addplot
[draw=blue,fill=blue!15]
coordinates
{(1,1) (1,2) (1,3) (2,4) (3,5) (4,6) (4,7) (6,8) (6,9) (7,10) (26,11) (30,12) (33,13)};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

EDIT: Undeleted on 2012-12-11.

Answer 4

An example of creating a graph in Beamer with the tkz-graph package:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tkz-graph}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
   \centerline{%
   \begin{tikzpicture}
      \SetGraphUnit{2}
      \GraphInit[vstyle=Normal]
      \SetVertexNoLabel
      \Vertex{A}
      \EA(A){B}
      \EA(B){C}
      \SO(C){D}
      \SO(B){E}
      \SO(A){F}
      \Edge[label=a](A)(B)
      \Edge[label=b](B)(C)
      \Edge[label=c](C)(D)
      \Edge[label=d](D)(E)
      \Edge[label=e](E)(F)
      \Edge[label=f](F)(A)
      \tikzstyle{bentedge}=[bend
      left]
      \tikzstyle{thickbentedge}=[ultra
      thick,
      bend
      left]
      \Edge[label=g,style=bentedge](B)(E)
      \Edge[label=h,style=bentedge](E)(B)
      \SetUpEdge[style={ultra
      thick}, color=red]
      \pause
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=a](A)(B)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=g,style=thickbentedge](B)(E)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=d](D)(E)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=c](C)(D)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=b](B)(C)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=h,style=thickbentedge](E)(B)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=e](E)(F)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[label=f](F)(A)}
   \end{tikzpicture}}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
   \centerline{%
   \begin{tikzpicture}
      \SetGraphUnit{2}
      \GraphInit[vstyle=Normal]
      \Vertex{A}
      \EA(A){B}
      \EA(B){C}
      \SO(C){D}
      \SO(B){E}
      \SO(A){F}
      \Edge(A)(B)
      \Edge(B)(C)
      \Edge(C)(D)
      \Edge(D)(E)
      \Edge(E)(F)
      \Edge(F)(A)
      \tikzstyle{bentedge}=[bend
      left]
      \tikzstyle{thickbentedge}=[ultra
      thick, bend left]
      \Edge[style=bentedge](B)(E)
      \Edge[style=bentedge](E)(B)
      \SetUpEdge[style={ultra
      thick}, color=red]
      \pause
      \only<+->{\Edge(A)(B)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[style=thickbentedge](B)(E)}
      \only<+->{\Edge(D)(E)}
      \only<+->{\Edge(C)(D)}
      \only<+->{\Edge(B)(C)}
      \only<+->{\Edge[style=thickbentedge](E)(B)}
      \only<+->{\Edge(E)(F)}
      \only<+->{\Edge(F)(A)}
   \end{tikzpicture}}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Another example with a directed graph:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tkz-graph}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
   \frametitle{Camping Example:}
   \begin{columns}
      \begin{column}{.5\textwidth}
     \begin{description}
        \item<alert@2>[$T_1$:]  Buy matches: 10 minutes
        \item<alert@3>[$T_2$:]  Collect firewood: 8 minutes
        \item<alert@4>[$T_3$:]  Light the fire: 6 minutes
        \item<alert@5>[$T_4$:]  Get water: 12 minutes
        \item<alert@6>[$T_5$:]  Cook soup: 15 minutes
        \item<alert@7>[$T_6$:]  Make patties: 9 minutes
        \item<alert@8>[$T_7$:]  Cook patties: 7 minutes
     \end{description}
      \end{column}
      \begin{column}{.5\textwidth}
     \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.7]
        \SetGraphUnit{2.7}
        \GraphInit[vstyle=Normal]
        \tikzset{EdgeStyle/.style = {->}}
        \uncover<2->{
        \Vertex[L=10]{a}
        \node[above] at (a.90) {$T_1$};
        }
        \uncover<3->{
        \SO[L=8](a){b}
        \node[above] at (b.90) {$T_2$};
        }
        \uncover<4->{
        \EA[L=6](b){c}
        \node[above] at (c.90) {$T_3$};
        \Edge(a)(c)
        \Edge(b)(c)
        }
        \uncover<5->{
        \SO[L=12](b){d}
        \node[above] at (d.90) {$T_4$};
        }
        \uncover<6->{
        \EA[L=15](c){e}
        \node[above] at (e.90) {$T_5$};
        \Edge(c)(e)
        \Edge(d)(e)
        }
        \uncover<7->{
        \SO[L=12](d){f}
        \node[above] at (f.90) {$T_6$};
        }
        \uncover<8->{
        \SO[L=7](e){g}
        \node[above] at (g.90) {$T_7$};
        \Edge(c)(g)
        \Edge(f)(g)
        }
     \end{tikzpicture}
      \end{column}
   \end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

A good tool for manually creating graphs in a pdf and eps format that you can insert into your Beamer presentation is the Ipe graphics editor. You can easily create a multi-page pdf in which you build or color a graph incrementally, and insert the pages info your document as described in the Beamer manual.

Another tool that will make it easier to create graph in tikz for inclusion into your Beamer presentation is tikzit.