algviz 0.1.5

An algorithm visualization tool for jupyter notebook to show animation for vector, table, linked list, tree and graph data structures.

Algviz

Introduce

Algviz is an algorithm visualization tool for your Python code in Jupyter-notebook.

Algviz can generate visual animations for vector, table, linked list, tree, and graph data structures. You can bring alive animations in your notebook after inserting a few algviz interfaces into code. For example, this animation shows a bubble sort algorithm:

If you come up with a good algorithm that can solve a problem but don't know how to describe it to your friends. At this point, you can use algviz to create an intuitive animation demo to show the working process of your algorithm. The point is, that you don't need to know about the fundamentals of animation at all. Leave the dirty work to algviz and just focus on how to implement your algorithm.

It's useful when you try to express the working process of a complex algorithm. For example, it's hard to imagine in mind the whole detail of mirror binary tree algorithm. Because the algorithm includes some recursive operations on a binary tree, which subtree was moved first is a headache problem. But no matter how complex the binary tree is, algviz can tell you how the algorithm works by intuitive animations.

Furthermore, algviz provides some encapsulated data classes which support operations like Python built-in class. For example, you can iterate on the algviz.Vector class just like Python list:

import algviz                   # Import algviz library.
viz = algviz.Visualizer()       # Create a visualizer object.
data = [1, 2, 3]
vector = viz.createVector(data) # Create a vector data object.
for num in vector:              # Iterate over all the elements in vector.
    print(num)
    viz.display()               # Refresh the animation in Jupyter-notebook.

You can modify the data multi-times, and algviz will record all the operations since the last time you call the display interface. Then it will merge all the operations in one animation when you call display next time. So the only thing you need to be concerned about is: when to call the display interface?

All the animations created by algviz are SVG string format. You can export the animation frames and review them in the browser or embed it in your slides. In the future, algviz.com will support exporting the svg with all the display objects and animation sequences for your code, please stay tuned!

Installation

Step1: Install Jupyter-notebook

You can choose any of the following methods to install Jupyter-notebook.

• If you are a vscode user, you can install Jupyter extension for vscode.
• Install Jupyter on your computer and view the animation on your browser.
• Install anaconda and use Jupyter-notebook in it.

Step2: Install Graphviz

Graphviz is used to generate the static layout of the topology graph. It's a popular open-source software, you can download the program on it's official site.

Note: please remember to add graphviz into your system's environment path so that other programs can call it directly.

Step3: Install algviz

Note: algviz runs on Python 3.7 or heigher versions.

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip install algviz

API Reference

All the API references for algviz can be found on readthedocs.

Examples

The examples folder contains some tutorials on how to start with algviz. You can set up your local environment and try them in your notebook. And if you are a google colab user, you can try with the google colab links. Try your first cool algviz code and good luck!😀

Example	Github link	Google Colab link	Description
vector	vector.ipynb	vector.ipynb colab	Basic operations on Vector class. Example of bubble sort algorithm.
table	table.ipynb	table.ipynb colab	Basic operations on Table class.
linked list	linked_list.ipynb	linked_list.ipynb colab	Create linked list and operate ForwardLinkedNode, DoublyLinkedNode classes.
tree	tree.ipynb	tree.ipynb colab	Create binary tree, normal tree Operate TreeNode, [BinaryTreeNode] classes. Example of mirror binary tree. Example of construct trie tree.
graph	graph.ipynb	graph.ipynb colab	Create graph and operate GraphNode class.

Unit Test

Make sure you have successfully installed algviz from PyPi and download the test codes from Github.

Then call the command:

python tests/run.py

If you see the output like this:

Congratulations, everything is OK !!!

It means algviz works fine in your environment. But if you get any unexpected errors, please report the bug.

License

Algviz uses GNU general public LICENSE. You can use it freely for learning and communication.

Links

• HomePage: https://algviz.com/
• GitHub: https://github.com/zjl9959/algviz
• PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/algviz/
• ReadtheDocs: https://algviz.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html