The first thing to do when studying an algorithm is to understand the data. Input: Graph search algorithms, including A*, take a "graph" as input. A graph is a set of locations ("nodes") and the connections ("edges") between them. Here's the graph I gave to A*: A* doesn't see anything else. It only sees the graph.

The first thing to do when studying an algorithm is to understand the data. Input: Graph search algorithms, including A*, take a "graph" as input. A graph is a set of locations ("nodes") and the connections ("edges") between them. Here's the graph I gave to A*: A* doesn't see anything else. It only sees the graph.