According to this paper,a family of intervals is said to be canonical if the coordinates of the endpoints of the intervals are distinct integers between 1 and 2n where n is the number of intervals.
Here is the example Original intervals = {[2,5], [3,11], [6,9], [7,13], [8,18], [12,16], [15,19]}
Canonical form of intervals = {[1,3], [2,8], [4,7], [5,10], [6,13], [9,12], [11,14]}
These original intervals and canonical form of the original intervals give the same interval graph, but how can I prove that it is always the case mathematically ?
Edit: This is the method I use to create canonical intervals: I sort the intervals according to their starting points in ascending order Then, I assign the first interval's [2,5] starting point as 1. Then, I compare it with the following intervals to see the overlappings. Then, I arrange the intervals accordingly.
I repeat this process for all intervals.
Examples:
[2,5] contains only the starting point of interval 2, so
[2,5] becomes [1, (start of interval 2), 3] = [1,3]
[3,11] contains, start of interval 3, start of interval 4, end of interval 3, and start of interval 5, so
[3,11] becomes [2, 3, (start of interval 3), (start of interval 4), (end of interval 3),(start of interval 5),8] = [2,8]
note: interval 2 can not start here because at point 3 because it is where interval 1 ends. All start and end points should be distinct.