Bellman Ford Shortest Path in Java

Algorithms: Graph Algorithms November 15, 2026 Java

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

java
  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
// Bellman Ford Shortest Path in Java
//
// 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
// Java 17+: primitive int arrays, Arrays.binarySearch for LIS, and Math exact arithmetic.
// Invalid input throws IllegalArgumentException; arithmetic overflow throws
// ArithmeticException.
//
// EXAMPLE
// Expected return: 2.
// Run: javac AlgorithmExample.java && java AlgorithmExample
// Tests for this exact source artifact run before publication. The accompanying source
// archive includes unit cases, runtime results, and source hashes.

class AlgorithmExample {
    static void alg_require(boolean valid) { if (!valid) throw new IllegalArgumentException("invalid algorithm input"); }
    static int alg_size(int n) { alg_require(n>=0 && n<=4000000); return n; }

    static int bellman_ford(int[] from_vertex, int[] to_vertex, int[] weight, int n, int source, int target) {
        java.util.Objects.requireNonNull(from_vertex, "from_vertex");
        java.util.Objects.requireNonNull(to_vertex, "to_vertex");
        java.util.Objects.requireNonNull(weight, "weight");
        int m = from_vertex.length;
        alg_require(((n >= 0) && (n <= 1000000)));
        alg_require(((m >= 0) && (m <= 1000000)));
        alg_require((from_vertex.length == m));
        alg_require((to_vertex.length == m));
        alg_require((weight.length == m));
        alg_require(((n >= 1) && (source >= 0) && (source < n)));
        alg_require(((target >= 0) && (target < n)));
        for (int alg_i = 0; alg_i < from_vertex.length; alg_i++) {
            int alg_value = from_vertex[alg_i];
            alg_require(((alg_value >= 0) && (alg_value < n)));
        }
        for (int alg_i = 0; alg_i < to_vertex.length; alg_i++) {
            int alg_value = to_vertex[alg_i];
            alg_require(((alg_value >= 0) && (alg_value < n)));
        }
        int[] distance = new int[alg_size(n)];
        int i = 0;
        int edge = 0;
        int iteration = 0;
        int changed = 0;
        int u = 0;
        int v = 0;
        while ((i < n)) {
            distance[i] = 1000000000;
            i = Math.addExact(i, 1);
        }
        distance[source] = 0;
        while ((iteration < Math.subtractExact(n, 1))) {
            changed = 0;
            edge = 0;
            while ((edge < m)) {
                u = from_vertex[edge];
                v = to_vertex[edge];
                if (((distance[u] != 1000000000) && (Math.addExact(distance[u], weight[edge]) < distance[v]))) {
                    distance[v] = Math.addExact(distance[u], weight[edge]);
                    changed = 1;
                }
                edge = Math.addExact(edge, 1);
            }
            if ((changed == 0)) {
                break;
            }
            iteration = Math.addExact(iteration, 1);
        }
        edge = 0;
        while ((edge < m)) {
            u = from_vertex[edge];
            v = to_vertex[edge];
            if (((distance[u] != 1000000000) && (Math.addExact(distance[u], weight[edge]) < distance[v]))) {
                return Math.negateExact(1000000000);
            }
            edge = Math.addExact(edge, 1);
        }
        return distance[target];
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] from_vertex = new int[] {0, 1, 0};
        int[] to_vertex = new int[] {1, 2, 2};
        int[] weight = new int[] {4, -2, 9};
        int n = 3;
        int source = 0;
        int target = 2;
        int result = bellman_ford(from_vertex, to_vertex, weight, n, source, target);
        System.out.println(result);
    }
}