GDF

GDF (Graph Description Format) is the file format used by GUESS and supported by Gephi's importer. It is a simple, CSV-like plain text format divided into two sections: nodes and edges. Each section starts with a header line that defines column names and types; subsequent lines list elements with values separated by commas.

Structure

• The node section header begins with nodedef> followed by column definitions such as name VARCHAR,label VARCHAR.
• The edge section header begins with edgedef> followed by column definitions such as node1 VARCHAR,node2 VARCHAR,weight DOUBLE.
• Values are comma-separated and must respect the order declared in the header.

Basic example

nodedef>name VARCHAR,label VARCHAR
s1,Site number 1
s2,Site number 2
s3,Site number 3
edgedef>node1 VARCHAR,node2 VARCHAR
s1,s2
s2,s3
s3,s2
s3,s1

Example with edge weight

nodedef>name VARCHAR,label VARCHAR
s1,Site number 1
s2,Site number 2
s3,Site number 3
edgedef>node1 VARCHAR,node2 VARCHAR, weight DOUBLE
s1,s2,1.2341
s2,s3,0.453
s3,s2,2.34
s3,s1,0.871

Various attributes example

You can add as many node and edge attributes as needed. Attributes can be used by Gephi (for example in Filters).

nodedef>name VARCHAR,label VARCHAR,class VARCHAR, visible BOOLEAN,labelvisible BOOLEAN,width DOUBLE,height DOUBLE,x DOUBLE,y DOUBLE,color VARCHAR
s1,SiteA,blog,true,true,10.0,10.0,-52.11296,-25.921143,'114,116,177'
s2,SiteB,forum,true,true,10.986123,10.986123,-20.114172,25.740356,'219,116,251'
s3,SiteC,webpage,true,true,10.986123,10.986123,8.598924,-26.867584,'192,208,223'
edgedef>node1 VARCHAR,node2 VARCHAR,directed BOOLEAN,color VARCHAR
s1,s2,true,'114,116,177'
s2,s3,true,'219,116,251'
s3,s2,true,'192,208,223'
s3,s1,true,'192,208,223'

Working with text values

If your text contains commas or quotes, wrap the whole value in single quotes to avoid breaking the column separation.

nodedef>name VARCHAR,label VARCHAR,class VARCHAR, visible BOOLEAN,labelvisible BOOLEAN,width DOUBLE,height DOUBLE,x DOUBLE,y DOUBLE,color VARCHAR
s1,'Hello "world" !',type1,true,true,10.0,10.0,-52.11296,-25.921143,'114,116,177'
s2,'Well, this is',type1,true,true,10.986123,10.986123,-20.114172,25.740356,'219,116,251'
s3,'A correct 'GDF' file',type1,true,true,10.986123,10.986123,8.598924,-26.867584,'192,208,223'
edgedef>node1 VARCHAR,node2 VARCHAR,directed BOOLEAN,color VARCHAR
s1,s2,true,'114,116,177'
s2,s3,true,'219,116,251'
s3,s2,true,'192,208,223'
s3,s1,true,'192,208,223'

Implementation details

• Missing values: When a value is missing, keep the comma placeholder. Do not omit the comma.

nodedef>name VARCHAR,label VARCHAR,att1 VARCHAR,att2 VARCHAR,att3 VARCHAR,att4 BOOLEAN
s1,SiteA,blabla,blabla,blabla,true
s2,SiteB, , , ,false
s3,SiteC,blabla, , ,true

• Colors: Colors are stored as a VARCHAR with three comma-separated integer components for red, green and blue (0–255). Example: '114,116,177'.

• Position & size: Node positions are X and Y (and optional Z) as DOUBLE columns. Node size can be specified with a width DOUBLE attribute.

Common problems

• If special characters appear as boxes, ensure the file is encoded as UTF-8 (with BOM if necessary).
• If you get an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 1, check that every node line has the expected number of values (e.g., a missing label can trigger this).