---
name: "Graph::Writer::Dot"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libgraph-readwrite-perl"
version: "2.10-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Graph::Writer::Dot"
---

# Graph::Writer::Dot(3pm)

write out directed graph in Dot format

## NAME

Graph::Writer::Dot - write out directed graph in Dot format

## SYNOPSIS

```
  use Graph;
  use Graph::Writer::Dot;
  $graph = Graph->new();
  # add edges and nodes to the graph
  $writer = Graph::Writer::Dot->new();
  $writer->write_graph($graph, 'mygraph.dot');
```

## DESCRIPTION

**Graph::Writer::Dot** is a class for writing out a directed graph in the file format used by the *dot* tool (part of the AT+T graphviz package). The graph must be an instance of the Graph class, which is actually a set of classes developed by Jarkko Hietaniemi.

## METHODS

### new()

Constructor - generate a new writer instance.

```
  $writer = Graph::Writer::Dot->new();
```

This can take one optional argument that tell to cluster nodes in subgraphs by using the attribute passed as value. See:

```
  $writer = Graph::Writer::Dot->new(cluster => 'group');
```

It will group nodes that have the the same value in the 'group' attribute.

### write\_graph()

Write a specific graph to a named file:

```
  $writer->write_graph($graph, $file);
```

The `$file` argument can either be a filename, or a filehandle for a previously opened file.

## SEE ALSO

- www.graphviz.org \<http://www.graphviz.org/\>

  The home page for the AT+T graphviz toolkit that includes the dot tool.

- Graph

  Jarkko Hietaniemi's modules for representing directed graphs, available from CPAN under modules/by-module/Graph/

- Algorithms in Perl

  The O'Reilly book which has a chapter on directed graphs, which is based around Jarkko's modules.

- Graph::Writer

  The base-class for Graph::Writer::Dot

## REPOSITORY

\<https://github.com/neilb/Graph-ReadWrite\>

## AUTHOR

Neil Bowers \<neil@bowers.com\>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2001-2012, Neil Bowers. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2001, Canon Research Centre Europe. All rights reserved.

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.