Boost graph with existing data structure or using it as the data structure

Question

I'm writing an application that's parsing a data structure with something like

struct Block
{
  std::string foo;
  /* ... even more local data ... */
};

std::map<std::string, Block> blockContainer; // Each Block will have a name here

struct Signal
{
  // the direct links to the Blocks, no redundant storage of the name so that an
  // simple renaming of a Block would be possible
  std::map<std::string, Block>::iterator from; 
  std::map<std::string, Block>::iterator to;

  std::string bar;
  /* ... even more local data ... */
};

std::vector<Signal> signalContainer;

parsing and filling this list was quite easy. Now I need to do a topological sort of the Blocks depending on the Signals - also quite easy when I use Boost::Graph.

But first parsing it in a STL data structure and then copying them over to the Boost::Graph structure doesn't make much sense to me. Especially as all that'll be done with this data afterwards is perhaps some simple modifications (add/remove of Blocks and Signals, some signal rerouteing; serialising it out again) with a new topological sort afterwards.

So I'd be fine with any of these possible solutions:

1. Make Boost::Graph work on my containers directly
2. Parse the data directly into the Boost::Graph data structures (and e.g. use a graph with bundled properties like boost::adjacency_list<boost::mapS, boost::vecS, boost::directedS, Block, Signal>)

But it seems I'm not intelligent enough to understand the documentation here to do either. Also all the examples I found on the net were showing how to use the bundled properties - but not how to construct the graph with those on the fly. (And, of course, not with node and vertex properties at the same time, or how to use a std::map for the nodes to access them by their name, ...)

Can someone help me out?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Nobody is intelligent enough for the boost::graph documentation ;) It takes a lot of time to learn how to use it.

You can créate a boost graph structure around your data, however, this will probably be rather painful. There is a documentation there : http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_52_0/libs/graph/doc/leda_conversion.html

I would suggest to go with the second approach, but I'm not sure to understand your data structure.

Did you see this question : adding custom vertices to a boost graph does it answers your needs ?

You can also do the following to create a node (or edge) and define the properties at once :

vertex_t u = boost::add_vertex(Block(42, "hi"), g);

You might need to maintain a map while parsing.