How to draw graphs in LaTeX?

Question

I need to draw simple graph (for example Petersen Graph) in LaTeX. I am using Kile in Ubuntu. I exactly don't know that which package should I use. Any suggestion with example is highly expected.

Answer 1

I think the best approach is to use the tkz-berge from Altermundus. You can also find a complete guide here.

However, to make a simple example just using TikZ, you can follow this approach:

\documentclass {article}

% example taken from 
% http://www.guitex.org/home/images/doc/GuideGuIT/introingtikz.pdf

\usepackage {tikz}
\usetikzlibrary {positioning}
%\usepackage {xcolor}
\definecolor {processblue}{cmyk}{0.96,0,0,0}
\begin {document}
\begin {center}
\begin {tikzpicture}[-latex ,auto ,node distance =4 cm and 5cm ,on grid ,
semithick ,
state/.style ={ circle ,top color =white , bottom color = processblue!20 ,
draw,processblue , text=blue , minimum width =1 cm}]
\node[state] (C)
{$1$};
\node[state] (A) [above left=of C] {$0$};
\node[state] (B) [above right =of C] {$2$};
\path (A) edge [loop left] node[left] {$1/4$} (A);
\path (C) edge [bend left =25] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (A);
\path (A) edge [bend right = -15] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (C);
\path (A) edge [bend left =25] node[above] {$1/4$} (B);
\path (B) edge [bend left =15] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (A);
\path (C) edge [bend left =15] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (B);
\path (B) edge [bend right = -25] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (C);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

which leads to:

It is an example of a Markov Chain in which several TikZ options are used. In the same guide, you will find an example in which nodes are placed in a matrix.

Answer 2

You can use the tkz-berge package . This package uses TikZ it's possible to add all the commands of TikZ.

Here the three classic forms of Petersen's graph

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{tkz-berge}


\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.5] 
\GraphInit[vstyle=Art] 
\SetGraphArtColor{red}{olive} 
\grPetersen[form=1,RA=5,RB=3]%
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.4]
   \GraphInit[vstyle=Art] 
   \SetGraphArtColor{red}{olive} 
   \grPetersen[form=2,RA=7,RB=3]%
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.5]
   \GraphInit[vstyle=Art] 
   \SetGraphArtColor{red}{olive} 
   \grPetersen[form=3,RA=7]%
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I wrote a document with some classic named graphs. It's inside the your distribution (>2011 I think)

texdoc NamedGraphsin the terminal

I added the sources and all the examples you can also find them here

NamedGraphs

Answer 3

Here an example to draw the Petersen's graph only with TikZ I try to structure correctly the code. The first scope is used for vertices ans the second one for edges. The only problem is to get the edges with `mod``

       \pgfmathtruncatemacro{\nextb}{mod(\i+1,5)}
       \pgfmathtruncatemacro{\nexta}{mod(\i+2,5)} 

The complete code

  \documentclass[border=6pt]{standalone}
  \usepackage{tikz}

  \begin{document}

  \begin{tikzpicture} 
    \begin{scope} [vertex style/.style={draw,
                                       circle,
                                       minimum size=6mm,
                                       inner sep=0pt,
                                       outer sep=0pt,
                                       shade}] 
      \path \foreach \i in {0,...,4}{%
       (72*\i:2) coordinate[vertex style] (a\i)
       (72*\i:4) coordinate[vertex style] (b\i)}
       ; 
    \end{scope}

     \begin{scope} [edge style/.style={draw=gray,double=white}]
       \foreach \i  in {0,...,4}{%
       \pgfmathtruncatemacro{\nextb}{mod(\i+1,5)}
       \pgfmathtruncatemacro{\nexta}{mod(\i+2,5)} 
       \draw[edge style] (a\i)--(b\i);
       \draw[edge style] (a\i)--(a\nexta);
       \draw[edge style] (b\i)--(b\nextb);
       }  
     \end{scope}

  \end{tikzpicture}
  \end{document} 

Answer 4

As there lacks an answer with pstricks, here a very simple code for the Petersen graph; it uses pst-poly:

\documentclass[12pt, pdf, x11names]{standalone}%

\usepackage{pstricks-add}
\usepackage{pst-poly}

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture*}(-1.1,-1)(1.1,1.1)
\providecommand{\PstPolygonNode}{%
\psdots[dotstyle=o, dotsize=3pt,fillstyle=solid, fillcolor=cyan](1;\INode)}
\psset{linewidth=0.6pt}
\rput(0,0){\PstPentagon[PolyName=A]}
\rput(0,0){\PstPentagon[unit=5mm, PolyOffset=2,PolyName=B]}
\multido{\i=1+1}{5}{\ncline[nodesep=1.5pt]{A\i}{B\i}}
\end{pspicture*}

\end{document} 

Answer 5

In case you do not want to do the layout yourself, you can use Graphviz to do so. That will result in a ".dot" file, that can be converted to Latex with dot2tex.

I just used my GraphvizFiddle tool to get "circo" layout for Petersen graph and verified that dot2tex works. Here is share link for the Petersen graph, switch output from "svg" to "dot" and press "Draw" button to get the Petersen ".dot" file. The tex output uses "tikzpicture" as well.