Right to left edges in dot (Graphviz)

Question

I'm trying to display edges going from right to left (i.e. backwards) using dot:

C <- A -> B

The best I could do was:

digraph {
  a -> b;
  c -> a [dir="back"];
  {rank=same;c a b}
}

..which is fine, except I don't like using c -> a when the edge is directed the other way.

So I wanted to share this solution (which didn't seem to be mentioned on SO) and check if I'm missing something obvious.

See: http://www.graphviz.org/doc/info/attrs.html#k:dirType

This doesn’t solve the problem that the rank of the nodes for the a-c edge still isn’t reversed relative to the graph, unless you write it `c -> a`. I wish one could just write `a <- c`. :/ — Evi1M4chine, Nov 27 '13 at 04:28

score 59 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 18 '11 at 07:45

59

I have no alternative to your usage of dir, but i can make it slightly shorter, if you want horizontal alignment, use the rankdir property of graph, to force direction from left to right.

digraph {
  rankdir=LR;
  a->b;
  c->a [dir="back"];
}

edited Feb 18 '11 at 07:45

Martin

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answered Nov 06 '09 at 10:13

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 20 '13 at 17:25

10

To make edges point backwards by default:

digraph {
  edge [dir="back"];
  a -> b;
  c -> a;
}

Then, override the default to point forwards:

c -> d [dir="forward"];

answered Jul 20 '13 at 17:25

Roger Dahl

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Right to left edges in dot (Graphviz)

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