# How do I visualize the result of EdgeColoring[g]?

Combinatorica has a heuristic edge-coloring function EdgeColoring. When I execute it on a graph, the result is a list of integers. My guess is that an integer $i$ at position $j$ in the list corresponds to coloring the edge $e$ at position $j$ with the color $i$.

The Combinatorica documentation is helplessly scarce, and it's hard for a beginner to understand how to visualize the colored graph. Am I supposed to use ShowGraph, or Highlight, or something else? For example, consider the following.

<< Combinatorica
g = CompleteGraph[4];
c = EdgeColoring[g];


The output is now {1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1}. How do I print out the graph with the colors on the edges showing?

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Do you need to use Combinatorica? If not EdgeStyle should be your friend :) – Öskå Apr 19 '14 at 10:30
@Öskå I think I do -- at least for finding the edge-coloring. That is, as far as I know, there is no heuristic nor exact edge-coloring algorithm in Mathematica not depending on Combinatorica. I suppose you could always convert a Combinatorica graph to a built-in graph, but the visualization problem still persists :-) – Juho Apr 19 '14 at 10:33
Please define what you need to do on a working example. Combinatorica is much trickier to use than the rest :) – Öskå Apr 19 '14 at 10:35
@Öskå Thanks for the suggestion, done! – Juho Apr 19 '14 at 11:01

<< Combinatorica
g = CompleteGraph[4];
c = EdgeColoring[g];
colors = ColorData[1, "ColorList"] (* say *);
ShowGraph[g, VertexLabel -> True, EdgeColor -> colors[[c]]]


For graphs in GraphData[], you can use the "MinimumEdgeColoring" property:

g2 = GraphData[{"Complete", 4}];
c2 = GraphData[{"Complete", 4}, "MinimumEdgeColoring"];
edges = EdgeList[g2];