A tutorial on graph transformation

Abstract

Graph transformation or graph rewriting has been developed for nearly 50 years and has become a mature and manifold formal technique. Basically, rewrite rules are used to manipulate graphs. These rules are given by a left-hand side and a right-hand side graph and the application comprises matching the left-hand side and replacing it with the right-hand side of the rule. In this contribution we give a tutorial on graph transformation that explains the so-called double-pushout approach to graph transformation in a rigorous, but non-categorical way, using a gluing construction. We explicate the definitions with several small examples. We also introduce attributes and attributed graph transformation in a lightweight form. The paper is concluded by a more extensive example on a leader election protocol, the description of tool support and pointers to related work.