# Setting arrowType to normal is not producing the expected result

**URL:** <https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [August 18, 2024, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401 "2024-08-18T12:25:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![explorer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@explorer](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/explorer)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2024, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/1 "2024-08-18T12:25:14Z")

</div>

In python I copied a graph using shallow copy G=Graph(myG, arrowType=“normal”).

myG has normal arrow head but the copy did not… it had a “none” arrowType (no symbol at the end of the arrow)

I also tried, G.graph\_attr[“arrowType”] = “normal”

(also tried arrowhead=“normal” in creation of the graph and in setting attributes)

A deep copy will produce the arrowType of the original graph, but the original graph has too much extraneous information that I don’t want to replicate.

Any suggestions?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/graphviz/user_avatar/forum.graphviz.org/mark/32/84_2.png) [@mark](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/mark)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/2 "2024-08-18T21:59:48Z")

</div>

What is your import statement, which library are you getting Graph from?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![explorer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@explorer](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/explorer)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2024, 4:31am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/3 "2024-08-19T04:31:26Z")

</div>

import graphviz  
it was installed with pip install graphviz

any recommended code to instantiate this graph as a shallow copy and have it assigned “normal” arrowhead? maybe I’m just not using the right code for instantiation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/graphviz/user_avatar/forum.graphviz.org/mark/32/84_2.png) [@mark](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/mark)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2024, 5:31am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/4 "2024-08-19T05:31:02Z")

</div>

Ok you should go ask over at  
[https://github.com/xflr6/graphviz](https://github.com/xflr6/graphviz)

We don’t maintain the graphviz python pip library here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![explorer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@explorer](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/explorer)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2024, 9:42am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/5 "2024-08-19T09:42:37Z")

</div>

Thanks. I thought this is just general knowledge question, not a library maintenance issue. I imagine many people have changed this and other attributes of graphviz graphs. I was just wondering about the syntax of how it might be done in python.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![smattr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/graphviz/user_avatar/forum.graphviz.org/smattr/32/85_2.png) [@smattr](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/smattr)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2024, 12:23am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/6 "2024-08-20T00:23:20Z")

</div>

I think the ambiguity Mark is pointing to is that the Graphviz project maintains a completely different Python module to the one you are using, called `gv`. If you ask about this kind of thing here, you are likely to get answers of how to do it in the `gv` Python module, whereas you probably want answers of how to do this in the `graphviz` Python module.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/graphviz/user_avatar/forum.graphviz.org/mark/32/84_2.png) [@mark](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/mark)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2024, 1:19am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/7 "2024-08-20T01:19:25Z")

</div>

Yeah I think we just don’t know much about the graphviz module here. Could be wrong; maybe someone here has used it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![steveroush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@steveroush](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/steveroush)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2024, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/8 "2024-08-20T01:39:46Z")

</div>

While I do not use this library, it looks like you might be setting a graph-level attribute, while it probably should be `XXX.attr('edge', arrowhead='normal')`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![explorer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@explorer](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/explorer)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/setting-arrowtype-to-normal-is-not-producing-the-expected-result/2401/9 "2024-08-21T09:19:23Z")

</div>

thank you very much for the explanation.