Pfadabschnitt

Pfadabschnitt is a German term that denotes a contiguous portion of a path. In general use it refers to the part of a path between two points along the same course, without detours or branching. In formal contexts it is often understood as a subsequence of a path, defined by its start and end points.

In graph theory, a path is a sequence of edges connecting vertices. A Pfadabschnitt is the subpath that runs from a starting vertex to an ending vertex along that path. It may be defined by its endpoints, or by specifying positions along the sequence of edges. Subpaths are fundamental in routing algorithms, dynamic programming on paths, and in proving properties of graphs.

In navigation and GIS, Pfadabschnitt is used to describe a leg of a route. Route planning often breaks a route into Pfadabschnitte to compute distances and travel times for each segment and to generate step-by-step directions. The concept also applies to hiking trails or public transport itineraries, where each Pfadabschnitt corresponds to one recognizable section of the journey.

In computing contexts, Pfadabschnitt can denote a portion of a path within a hierarchical structure, such as a subpath of a URL or file system path. This usage supports parsing, routing, access control, or resource localization by manipulating or inspecting individual Pfadabschnitte.

Depending on the discipline, Pfadabschnitt may be synonymous with subpath, path segment, or leg. The precise definition often depends on whether the path is geometric, graph-based, or textual (strings representing paths).