hi, i want to name the vertices and add the edges between vertices by referring to their names dynamicaly. i 'll have something like this. typedef boost::property<boost::vertex_name_t, string> VName; typedef boost::adjacency_list<boost::vecS, boost::vecS, boost::directedS, VName > Graph; typedef boost::property_map<Graph, boost::vertex_name_t>::type VertexNames; Graph g; VertexNames names = get(vertex_name, g); boost::add_vertex(VName("me") , g); boost::add_vertex(VName("myNeighbour") , g); i want to be able to do something like this. boost::add_edge( names.getKey("me"), names.getKey("myNeighbour") ,g); // but there is no any such kind of property_map i looked around and found that there are ways to get the name of vertex if i have a vertex_descriptor but how can i get a vertex_descriptor given the vertex_name there are only three ops defined on property_map :- get,put,iterator; is there any other way to get the key from value other than iterating through all the pairs in property_map & matching each pair.second with vertex_name? pardon me if it is a basic thing, i just cant able to get at it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Phani.