Is there an easy way to set or retrieve a graph edge properties as a list, in a single go?

Question

I am trying to use arbitrary edge properties in Graphs, and I am looking for easy ways to work with them.

In many cases it would be convenient to be able to set edge properties in a single go, specifying them as a list, where each element corresponds to the respective element in EdgeList. Is this possible? Is there an easy way?

There are a few standard edge properties which apply to edges only (thus the system knows that they are not vertex properties) and which can be set this way. EdgeWeight, EdgeCapacity and EdgeCost are such properties.

pg = SetProperty[g, EdgeWeight -> {2, 3}];

PropertyValue[{pg, 1 <-> 2}, EdgeWeight]
(* 2 *)

This won't work with arbitrary properties because the system doesn't know that they refer to edges.

pg = SetProperty[g, "foo" -> {2, 3}];

Options[pg, Properties]
(* {Properties -> {"GraphProperties" -> {"foo" -> {2, 3}}}} *)

It's set as a graph property, not as an edge property.

This won't work either:

pg = SetProperty[g, "foo" -> {1 <-> 2 -> 2, 2 <-> 3 -> 3}];

Options[pg, Properties]
(* {Properties -> {"GraphProperties" -> {"foo" -> {1 <-> 2 -> 2, 2 <-> 3 -> 3}}}} *)

This will work, but it's very cumbersome and probably slow even if automated:

pg = SetProperty[{g, 1 <-> 2}, "foo" -> 2];
pg = SetProperty[{pg, 2 <-> 3}, "foo" -> 3];

Options[pg, Properties]
(* {Properties -> {2 <-> 3 -> {"foo" -> 3}, 1 <-> 2 -> {"foo" -> 2}}} *)

Then the question is: is there a better way to set arbitrary edge properties in one go for all edges? Is there a better way to get arbitrary edge properties?

Why do I think that there may be a better way?

One hint is that WeightedAdjacencyMatrix has an undocumented (but used elsewhere in the documentation) option EdgeWeights which generates the adjacency matrix based on an arbitrary edge property.

WeightedAdjacencyMatrix[pg] // Normal
(* {{0, 1, 0}, {1, 0, 1}, {0, 1, 0} *)

WeightedAdjacencyMatrix[pg, EdgeWeight -> "foo"] // Normal
(* {{0, 2, 0}, {2, 0, 3}, {0, 3, 0}} *)

So I'm hopeful that there's a way to manage edge properties more easily.

---

Part of this question is mapping one edge property into another. Say, I import a GML file which has an edge attribute "Capacity", and I want to easily transfer this into Mathematica's standard EdgeCapacity.

Answer 1

You can set each edge properties with Properties like you observed:

g = CompleteGraph[50];

pg = SetProperty[g, 
   Properties -> 
    Thread[EdgeList[g] -> 
      List /@ Thread["foo" -> Range[EdgeCount[g]]]]];

WeightedAdjacencyMatrix[pg, 
   EdgeWeight -> "foo"][[;; 10, ;; 10]] // MatrixForm

{{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}, {1, 0, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56,
57}, {2, 50, 0, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104}, {3, 51, 98, 0,
145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150}, {4, 52, 99, 145, 0, 191, 192, 193,
194, 195}, {5, 53, 100, 146, 191, 0, 236, 237, 238, 239}, {6, 54,
101, 147, 192, 236, 0, 280, 281, 282}, {7, 55, 102, 148, 193, 237,
280, 0, 323, 324}, {8, 56, 103, 149, 194, 238, 281, 323, 0, 365}, {9, 57, 104, 150, 195, 239, 282, 324, 365, 0}}