Question

The Java VertexSetCollection class is used in the miniμm spanning tree algorithm implementation. Which code completes the VertexSetCollection class's merge() method?

a) void merge(HashSet vertexSet1, HashSet vertexSet2) HashSet merged;

b) void merge(ArrayList vertexSet1, ArrayList vertexSet2) ArrayList merged;

c) void merge(Set vertexSet1, Set vertexSet2) Set merged;

d) void merge(HashSet vertexSet1, HashSet vertexSet2) HashSet merged;

Answer 1

The correct code to complete the VertexSetCollection class's merge() method for a minimum spanning tree algorithm is c) void merge(Set vertexSet1, Set vertexSet2) Set merged; which allows for merging two sets of vertices into one without duplicates and offers flexibility in set implementation.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Java VertexSetCollection class mentioned is likely a part of a minimum spanning tree algorithm implementation, such as Kruskal's or Prim's algorithm. In context, the merge() method is used to combine two sets of vertices. The correct completion of the merge() method should be taking two sets of vertices and uniting them into one set, which would likely involve set operations available in the Java Collections Framework.

The correct answer to the question is c) void merge(Set vertexSet1, Set vertexSet2) Set merged; because the Set interface is the most generic type that represents collections without duplicate elements which is useful for vertex sets in a graph, where typically each vertex is unique. The use of generic Set also allows for greater flexibility in the choice of the specific set implementation (e.g., HashSet, LinkedHashSet, or TreeSet).