Dijkstra Algorithm Questions Medium
In the Dijkstra Algorithm, the target vertex plays a crucial role as it represents the destination or the final vertex that we want to reach from the source vertex. The algorithm aims to find the shortest path from the source vertex to the target vertex by iteratively exploring and updating the distances of all the vertices in the graph.
Initially, all vertices are assigned a tentative distance value, which is set to infinity except for the source vertex, which is set to 0. The algorithm then selects the vertex with the smallest tentative distance as the current vertex and examines all its neighboring vertices.
For each neighboring vertex, the algorithm calculates the distance from the current vertex to that neighboring vertex, considering the weight of the edge connecting them. If this calculated distance is smaller than the current tentative distance of the neighboring vertex, the tentative distance is updated to the new smaller value.
This process continues until the target vertex is reached or until all vertices have been visited. The algorithm guarantees that once the target vertex is reached, the shortest path from the source vertex to the target vertex has been found.
Therefore, the role of the target vertex in the Dijkstra Algorithm is to serve as the final destination, guiding the algorithm to find the shortest path from the source vertex to the target vertex by iteratively updating the distances of all vertices in the graph.