data-structures Union-find data structure Basic implementation
Example
The most basic implementation of a union-find data structure consists of an array parent storing the a parent element for every element of the structure. Following these parent 'pointers' for an element i leads us to the representative j = find(i) of the set containing i, where parent[j] = j holds.
using std::size_t;
class union_find {
private:
std::vector<size_t> parent; // Parent for every node
public:
union_find(size_t n) : parent(n) {
for (size_t i = 0; i < n; ++i)
parent[i] = i; // Every element is its own representative
}
size_t find(size_t i) const {
if (parent[i] == i) // If we already have a representative
return i; // return it
return find(parent[i]); // otherwise return the parent's representative
}
void merge(size_t i, size_t j) {
size_t pi = find(i);
size_t pj = find(j);
if (pi != pj) { // If the elements are not in the same set:
parent[pi] = pj; // Join the sets by marking pj as pi's parent
}
}
};
