Relationship
Node-link network diagram
Represents entities as nodes and their relationships as links.
- Diagram
- Relationship
- Structure
What it answers
Which entities are connected?
- Shape
- Nodes connected by lines
- What it shows
- Connectivity, hubs and isolated nodes.
Example
The question
Who works with whom across the two project teams?
Working links between ten colleagues
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Relational structure with a manageable network.
Avoid it when
When layout proximity is mistaken for a measured relationship.
How to read it
Read node labels and links; use the legend for link types.
Note
A relationship need not be a flow.
The data you need
- Layout
- Edge list plus node table
- Fields
- Source: text ID; Target: text ID; optional Weight: number
- One row is
- One relationship between two nodes. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Declare directed or undirected links. Handle duplicate edges and self-loops intentionally.
- Optional
- Separate Nodes table: NodeID,Label,Type. Include isolated nodes there.
- Preparation
- Resolve node identities and endpoint joins; define direction and duplicate/self-link handling. Aggregate weights only under a stated relationship or flow definition.
- Units
- Unweighted links encode presence. Weights need a unit; flow shares divide by stated source, destination or network totals, not an assumed common denominator.
Worked example
Edges A-B, A-C, B-C make a triangle. Each node hasdegree 2 in this undirected example.
| Source | Target |
|---|---|
| A | B |
| A | C |
| B | C |