simple_cycles: Finds all simple cycles in a graph.

In igraph: Network Analysis and Visualization

Finds all simple cycles in a graph.

Description

This function lists all simple cycles in a graph within a range of cycle lengths. A cycle is called simple if it has no repeated vertices.

Multi-edges and self-loops are taken into account. Note that typical graphs have exponentially many cycles and the presence of multi-edges exacerbates this combinatorial explosion.

Usage

simple_cycles(
  graph,
  mode = c("out", "in", "all", "total"),
  min = NULL,
  max = NULL,
  ...,
  callback = NULL
)

Arguments

graph	The input graph.
mode	Character constant specifying how to handle directed graphs. out follows edge directions, ⁠in⁠ follows edges in the reverse direction, and all ignores edge directions. Ignored in undirected graphs.
min	Lower limit on cycle lengths to consider. NULL means no limit.
max	Upper limit on cycle lengths to consider. NULL means no limit.
...	These dots are for future extensions and must be empty.
callback	Optional function to call for each cycle found. If provided, the function should accept two arguments: vertices (integer vector of vertex IDs in the cycle) and edges (integer vector of edge IDs in the cycle). The function should return FALSE to continue the search or TRUE to stop it. If NULL (the default), all cycles are collected and returned as a list. Important limitation: Callback functions must NOT call any igraph functions (including simple queries like vcount() or ecount()). Doing so will cause R to crash due to nested .Call() state corruption. Extract any needed graph information before calling the function with a callback, or use collector mode (the default) and process results afterward.

Value

If callback is NULL, returns a list with two elements: vertices (list of integer vectors with vertex IDs) and edges (list of integer vectors with edge IDs). If callback is provided, returns NULL invisibly.

If callback is NULL, returns a list with two elements: vertices (list of integer vectors with vertex IDs) and edges (list of integer vectors with edge IDs). If callback is provided, returns NULL invisibly.

Related documentation in the C library

simple_cycles(), vcount(), edges(), get_eids(), ecount()

See Also

Graph cycles feedback_arc_set(), feedback_vertex_set(), find_cycle(), girth(), has_eulerian_path(), is_acyclic(), is_dag()

Examples

g <- graph_from_literal(A -+ B -+ C -+ A -+ D -+ E +- F -+ A, E -+ E, A -+ F, simplify = FALSE)
simple_cycles(g)
simple_cycles(g, mode = "all") # ignore edge directions
simple_cycles(g, mode = "all", min = 2, max = 3) # limit cycle lengths

igraph documentation built on April 21, 2026, 5:06 p.m.