# Why does cluster\_edge\_betweenness take a long time to work and does not output a result for a big network?

**URL:** https://igraph.discourse.group/t/why-does-cluster-edge-betweenness-take-a-long-time-to-work-and-does-not-output-a-result-for-a-big-network/720
**Category:** Usage
**Tags:** R
**Created:** [19 April 2021 11:55 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/why-does-cluster-edge-betweenness-take-a-long-time-to-work-and-does-not-output-a-result-for-a-big-network/720 "2021-04-19T11:55:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Alexey\_Didorenko](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/alexey_didorenko/32/483_2.png) [@Alexey\_Didorenko](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/Alexey_Didorenko)
#### Post date: [19 April 2021 11:55 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/why-does-cluster-edge-betweenness-take-a-long-time-to-work-and-does-not-output-a-result-for-a-big-network/720/1 "2021-04-19T11:55:38Z")

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Why does cluster\_edge\_betweenness take a long time to work and does not output a result for a network with 16,000 nodes and 300,000 links?  
Is it mistake?

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### Author: ![szhorvat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/szhorvat/32/3_2.png) [@szhorvat](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/szhorvat)
#### Post date: [19 April 2021 12:25 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/why-does-cluster-edge-betweenness-take-a-long-time-to-work-and-does-not-output-a-result-for-a-big-network/720/2 "2021-04-19T12:25:21Z")

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A straightforward implementation of the Girvan-Newman algorithm has quadratic complexity in the number of edges, therefore it is not a surprise that it is slow on such a large graph.