Bellman Ford Shortest Path in C

Algorithms: Graph Algorithms November 15, 2026 C

Bellman-Ford permits negative edge weights and detects negative cycles reachable from the source.

c
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
 10
 11
 12
 13
 14
 15
 16
 17
 18
 19
 20
 21
 22
 23
 24
 25
 26
 27
 28
 29
 30
 31
 32
 33
 34
 35
 36
 37
 38
 39
 40
 41
 42
 43
 44
 45
 46
 47
 48
 49
 50
 51
 52
 53
 54
 55
 56
 57
 58
 59
 60
 61
 62
 63
 64
 65
 66
 67
 68
 69
 70
 71
 72
 73
 74
 75
 76
 77
 78
 79
 80
 81
 82
 83
 84
 85
 86
 87
 88
 89
 90
 91
 92
 93
 94
 95
 96
 97
 98
 99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <errno.h>
// Bellman Ford Shortest Path in C
//
// PURPOSE
// Bellman-Ford permits negative edge weights and detects negative cycles reachable from the
// source. Repeated edge relaxation finds progressively longer optimal paths.
//
// METHOD
// Relax every edge up to n-1 times, stopping early if nothing changes. Perform one extra
// pass to detect a reachable negative cycle. Guard unreachable endpoints before adding
// weights.
//
// COMPLEXITY
// O(VE) time and O(V) auxiliary space.
//
// CONTRACT
// Edge arrays from_vertex, to_vertex, weight each have m entries; n >= 1. Finite distances
// and all relaxed sums stay strictly between -1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000. Returns
// distance, INF if unreachable, or -INF for any reachable negative cycle (even if it cannot
// reach target).
// Public APIs infer array lengths except in C, which accepts pointer/length pairs. Vertex
// counts and matrix dimensions remain explicit. Arrays must contain signed 32-bit integers.
// Sorted order, correct tree topology, and caller-owned data-structure invariants are
// preconditions; checking them on every query would change query complexity.
// Scalar and shape checks are included. Value-range checks are included where needed to
// prevent invalid indexing or nontermination. Allocation sizes are capped at 4,000,000
// workspace entries. Arithmetic outside Python raises an error on 32-bit overflow; Python
// uses arbitrary precision. Native allocation failures propagate. In-place outputs may be
// partly updated after arithmetic failure. These are single-threaded, in-memory
// implementations.
//
// LANGUAGE DETAILS
// C99: checked calloc/free workspace, const input pointers, explicit size_t lengths. Errors
// return INT_MIN with errno=EINVAL, ERANGE, or ENOMEM. Check errno before using a result.
// Input/output arrays must not alias. No variable-length stack arrays.
//
// EXAMPLE
// Expected return: 2.
// Run: gcc -std=c99 -O2 example.c -o example && ./example
// Tests for this exact source artifact run before publication. The accompanying source
// archive includes unit cases, runtime results, and source hashes.

static int alg_min(int a, int b) { return a < b ? a : b; }
static int alg_max(int a, int b) { return a > b ? a : b; }
static int alg_checked(int64_t v, int *error) {
    if (v < INT_MIN || v > INT_MAX) { *error = 1; return 0; }
    return (int)v;
}
static int alg_add(int a, int b, int *e) { return alg_checked((int64_t)a+b,e); }
static int alg_sub(int a, int b, int *e) { return alg_checked((int64_t)a-b,e); }
static int alg_mul(int a, int b, int *e) { return alg_checked((int64_t)a*b,e); }

int bellman_ford(const int *from_vertex, size_t from_vertex_length, const int *to_vertex, size_t to_vertex_length, const int *weight, size_t weight_length, int n, int source, int target) {
    int alg_error = 0;
    int alg_result = INT_MIN;
    errno = 0;
    int *distance = NULL;
    if (from_vertex_length > 1000000 || (from_vertex_length && !from_vertex)) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (to_vertex_length > 1000000 || (to_vertex_length && !to_vertex)) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (weight_length > 1000000 || (weight_length && !weight)) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    int m = (int)from_vertex_length;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((n >= 0) && (n <= 1000000)))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((m >= 0) && (m <= 1000000)))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((int)from_vertex_length == m))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((int)to_vertex_length == m))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((int)weight_length == m))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((n >= 1) && (source >= 0) && (source < n)))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (!(((target >= 0) && (target < n)))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    for (int alg_i = 0; alg_i < (int)from_vertex_length; alg_i++) {
        int alg_value = from_vertex[alg_i];
        if (!(((alg_value >= 0) && (alg_value < n)))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    }
    for (int alg_i = 0; alg_i < (int)to_vertex_length; alg_i++) {
        int alg_value = to_vertex[alg_i];
        if (!(((alg_value >= 0) && (alg_value < n)))) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    }
    {
        int alg_length = n;
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (alg_length < 0 || alg_length > 4000000) { errno = EINVAL; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        distance = calloc((size_t)(alg_length ? alg_length : 1), sizeof(*distance));
        if (!distance) { errno = ENOMEM; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    }
    int i = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    int edge = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    int iteration = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    int changed = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    int u = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    int v = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    while (1) {
        int alg_condition = (i < n);
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (!alg_condition) break;
        distance[i] = 1000000000;
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        i = alg_add(i, 1, &alg_error);
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    }
    distance[source] = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    while (1) {
        int alg_condition = (iteration < alg_sub(n, 1, &alg_error));
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (!alg_condition) break;
        changed = 0;
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        edge = 0;
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        while (1) {
            int alg_condition = (edge < m);
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
            if (!alg_condition) break;
            u = from_vertex[edge];
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
            v = to_vertex[edge];
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
            int alg_condition_1 = ((distance[u] != 1000000000) && (alg_add(distance[u], weight[edge], &alg_error) < distance[v]));
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
            if (alg_condition_1) {
                distance[v] = alg_add(distance[u], weight[edge], &alg_error);
                if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
                changed = 1;
                if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
            }
            edge = alg_add(edge, 1, &alg_error);
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        }
        int alg_condition_2 = (changed == 0);
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (alg_condition_2) {
            break;
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        }
        iteration = alg_add(iteration, 1, &alg_error);
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    }
    edge = 0;
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    while (1) {
        int alg_condition = (edge < m);
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (!alg_condition) break;
        u = from_vertex[edge];
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        v = to_vertex[edge];
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        int alg_condition_3 = ((distance[u] != 1000000000) && (alg_add(distance[u], weight[edge], &alg_error) < distance[v]));
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
        if (alg_condition_3) {
            alg_result = alg_sub(0, 1000000000, &alg_error);
            if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
            goto alg_cleanup;
        }
        edge = alg_add(edge, 1, &alg_error);
        if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    }
    alg_result = distance[target];
    if (alg_error) { errno = ERANGE; alg_result = INT_MIN; goto alg_cleanup; }
    goto alg_cleanup;
alg_cleanup:
    free(distance);
    return alg_result;
}

int main(void) {
    int from_vertex[] = {0, 1, 0};
    int to_vertex[] = {1, 2, 2};
    int weight[] = {4, -2, 9};
    int n = 3;
    int source = 0;
    int target = 2;
    int result = bellman_ford(from_vertex, 3, to_vertex, 3, weight, 3, n, source, target);
    printf("%d\n", result);
    if (errno) { perror("algorithm"); return 1; }
    return 0;
}