contracted_nodes#

contracted_nodes(G, u, v, self_loops=True, copy=True)[source]#

Returns the graph that results from contracting u and v.

Node contraction identifies the two nodes as a single node incident to any edge that was incident to the original two nodes.

Parameters:

GNetworkX graph: The graph whose nodes will be contracted.
u, vnodes: Must be nodes in G.
self_loopsBoolean: If this is True, any edges joining u and v in G become self-loops on the new node in the returned graph.
copyBoolean: If this is True (default True), make a copy of G and return that instead of directly changing G.

Returns:

Networkx graph: If Copy is True, A new graph object of the same type as G (leaving G unmodified) with u and v identified in a single node. The right node v will be merged into the node u, so only u will appear in the returned graph. If copy is False, Modifies G with u and v identified in a single node. The right node v will be merged into the node u, so only u will appear in the returned graph.

See also

contracted_edge
quotient_graph

Notes

For multigraphs, the edge keys for the realigned edges may not be the same as the edge keys for the old edges. This is natural because edge keys are unique only within each pair of nodes.

For non-multigraphs where u and v are adjacent to a third node w, the edge (v, w) will be contracted into the edge (u, w) with its attributes stored into a “contraction” attribute.

This function is also available as identified_nodes.

Examples

Contracting two nonadjacent nodes of the cycle graph on four nodes C_4 yields the path graph (ignoring parallel edges):

>>> G = nx.cycle_graph(4)
>>> M = nx.contracted_nodes(G, 1, 3)
>>> P3 = nx.path_graph(3)
>>> nx.is_isomorphic(M, P3)
True

>>> G = nx.MultiGraph(P3)
>>> M = nx.contracted_nodes(G, 0, 2)
>>> M.edges
MultiEdgeView([(0, 1, 0), (0, 1, 1)])

>>> G = nx.Graph([(1, 2), (2, 2)])
>>> H = nx.contracted_nodes(G, 1, 2, self_loops=False)
>>> list(H.nodes())
[1]
>>> list(H.edges())
[(1, 1)]

In a MultiDiGraph with a self loop, the in and out edges will be treated separately as edges, so while contracting a node which has a self loop the contraction will add multiple edges:

>>> G = nx.MultiDiGraph([(1, 2), (2, 2)])
>>> H = nx.contracted_nodes(G, 1, 2)
>>> list(H.edges())  # edge 1->2, 2->2, 2<-2 from the original Graph G
[(1, 1), (1, 1), (1, 1)]
>>> H = nx.contracted_nodes(G, 1, 2, self_loops=False)
>>> list(H.edges())  # edge 2->2, 2<-2 from the original Graph G
[(1, 1), (1, 1)]