The Boost Graph Library: User Guide and Reference Manual

Chapter 15. Property Map Library

Most graph algorithms require access to various properties associated with the vertices and edges of a graph. For example, problem data such as the length or capacity of an edge may be needed by the algorithms, as well as auxiliary data flags such as color, to indicate whether a vertex has been visited. There are many possibilities for how these properties can be stored in memory, ranging from members of vertex and edge objects, to arrays indexed by some index, to properties that are computed when needed. To insulate generic algorithms from the details of the underlying property representation, the property map¹ abstraction is introduced.

Several categories of property accessors provide different access capabilities: ...