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Simple Python interface for Graphviz

Graphviz

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|Build| |Codecov| |Readthedocs-stable| |Readthedocs-latest|

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This package facilitates the creation and rendering of graph descriptions in the DOT_ language of the Graphviz_ graph drawing software (upstream repo_) from Python.

Create a graph object, assemble the graph by adding nodes and edges, and retrieve its DOT source code string. Save the source code to a file and render it with the Graphviz installation of your system.

Use the view option/method to directly inspect the resulting (PDF, PNG, SVG, etc.) file with its default application. Graphs can also be rendered and displayed within Jupyter notebooks_ (formerly known as IPython notebooks, example <notebook_>, nbviewer <notebook-nbviewer_>) as well as the Jupyter QtConsole.

Links

  • GitHub: https://github.com/xflr6/graphviz
  • PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/graphviz/
  • Documentation: https://graphviz.readthedocs.io
  • Changelog: https://graphviz.readthedocs.io/en/latest/changelog.html
  • Issue Tracker: https://github.com/xflr6/graphviz/issues
  • Download: https://pypi.org/project/graphviz/#files
  • Development documentation: https://graphviz.readthedocs.io/en/latest/development.html
  • Release process: https://graphviz.readthedocs.io/en/latest/release_process.html

Installation

This package runs under Python 3.8+, use pip_ to install:

.. code:: bash

$ pip install graphviz

To render the generated DOT source code, you also need to install Graphviz_ (download page <upstream-download_>, archived versions <upstream-archived_>, installation procedure for Windows <upstream-windows_>_).

Make sure that the directory containing the dot executable is on your systems' PATH (sometimes done by the installer; setting PATH on Linux <set-path-linux_>, Mac <set-path-darwin_>, and Windows <set-path-windows_>_).

Anaconda_: see the conda-forge_ package conda-forge/python-graphviz <conda-forge-python-graphviz_>_ (feedstock <conda-forge-python-graphviz-feedstock_>), which should automatically conda install conda-forge/graphviz <conda-forge-graphviz_> (feedstock <conda-forge-graphviz-feedstock_>_) as dependency.

Quickstart

Create a graph object:

.. code:: python

>>> import graphviz  # doctest: +NO_EXE
>>> dot = graphviz.Digraph(comment='The Round Table')
>>> dot  #doctest: +ELLIPSIS
<graphviz.graphs.Digraph object at 0x...>

Add nodes and edges:

.. code:: python

>>> dot.node('A', 'King Arthur')  # doctest: +NO_EXE
>>> dot.node('B', 'Sir Bedevere the Wise')
>>> dot.node('L', 'Sir Lancelot the Brave')

>>> dot.edges(['AB', 'AL'])
>>> dot.edge('B', 'L', constraint='false')

Check the generated source code:

.. code:: python

>>> print(dot.source)  # doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE +NO_EXE
// The Round Table
digraph {
    A [label="King Arthur"]
    B [label="Sir Bedevere the Wise"]
    L [label="Sir Lancelot the Brave"]
    A -> B
    A -> L
    B -> L [constraint=false]
}

Save and render the source code (skip/ignore any doctest_mark_exe() lines):

.. code:: python

>>> doctest_mark_exe()  # skip this line

>>> dot.render('doctest-output/round-table.gv').replace('\\', '/')
'doctest-output/round-table.gv.pdf'

Save and render and view the result:

.. code:: python

>>> doctest_mark_exe()  # skip this line

>>> dot.render('doctest-output/round-table.gv', view=True)  # doctest: +SKIP
'doctest-output/round-table.gv.pdf'

.. image:: https://raw.github.com/xflr6/graphviz/master/docs/_static/round-table.svg :align: center :alt: round-table.svg

Caveat: Backslash-escapes and strings of the form <...> have a special meaning in the DOT language. If you need to render arbitrary strings (e.g. from user input), check the details in the user guide_.

See also

  • pygraphviz_ |--| full-blown interface wrapping the Graphviz C library with SWIG
  • graphviz-python_ |--| official Python bindings (documentation <graphviz-python-docs_>_)
  • pydot_ |--| stable pure-Python approach, requires pyparsing

License

This package is distributed under the MIT license_.

.. _Graphviz: https://www.graphviz.org .. _DOT: https://www.graphviz.org/doc/info/lang.html .. _upstream repo: https://gitlab.com/graphviz/graphviz/ .. _upstream-download: https://www.graphviz.org/download/ .. _upstream-archived: https://www2.graphviz.org/Archive/stable/ .. _upstream-windows: https://forum.graphviz.org/t/new-simplified-installation-procedure-on-windows/224

.. _set-path-windows: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm .. _set-path-linux: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14637979/how-to-permanently-set-path-on-linux-unix .. _set-path-darwin: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22465332/setting-path-environment-variable-in-osx-permanently

.. _pip: https://pip.pypa.io

.. _Jupyter notebooks: https://jupyter.org .. _IPython notebooks: https://ipython.org/notebook.html .. _Jupyter QtConsole: https://qtconsole.readthedocs.io

.. _notebook: https://github.com/xflr6/graphviz/blob/master/examples/graphviz-notebook.ipynb .. _notebook-nbviewer: https://nbviewer.org/github/xflr6/graphviz/blob/master/examples/graphviz-notebook.ipynb

.. _Anaconda: https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/install/ .. _conda-forge: https://conda-forge.org .. _conda-forge-python-graphviz: https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/python-graphviz .. _conda-forge-python-graphviz-feedstock: https://github.com/conda-forge/python-graphviz-feedstock .. _conda-forge-graphviz: https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/graphviz .. _conda-forge-graphviz-feedstock: https://github.com/conda-forge/graphviz-feedstock

.. _user guide: https://graphviz.readthedocs.io/en/stable/manual.html

.. _pygraphviz: https://pypi.org/project/pygraphviz/ .. _graphviz-python: https://pypi.org/project/graphviz-python/ .. _graphviz-python-docs: https://www.graphviz.org/pdf/gv.3python.pdf .. _pydot: https://pypi.org/project/pydot/

.. _MIT license: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

.. |--| unicode:: U+2013

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