networkx.algorithms.matching.maximal_matching

maximal_matching(G)[source]

Find a maximal matching in the graph.

A matching is a subset of edges in which no node occurs more than once. A maximal matching cannot add more edges and still be a matching.

Parameters

G (NetworkX graph) – Undirected graph

Returns

matching – A maximal matching of the graph.

Return type

set

Notes

The algorithm greedily selects a maximal matching M of the graph G (i.e. no superset of M exists). It runs in \(O(|E|)\) time.