AbstractA bit manipulation method is given for finding shortest distances from an origin in an unweighted graph, or alternatively, for finding connected components. The basic approach is similar to some component algorithms already in the literature but an easy implementation is given that overcomes the problem which prevents the others from being efficient–namely, the problem of identifying the ones in a sparse bit string without checking all the bits. The algorithm would be most effective for moderate sized graphs (about 20–100 nodes). Computational results are gi