It is often a challenge to find interesting and appropriate data sets to use as examples to demonstrate graph data structures and algorithms. Goals for the data are often conflicting. The data should include examples small enough to work through in a class example by hand, but some large enough to demonstrate important behaviors of a structure or algorithm. Data should be freely available in a convenient format and should have some real-world relevance. Visualization of the data and results computed from it is helpful.
This paper describes a collection of graph data sets generated from the Clinched Highway Mapping Project's highway data and some examples of their use in undergraduate courses on data structures and algorithms. The source data, the process used to convert the data into a more useful format, some examples of its use, and a visualization tool using the Google Maps API, are described.
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