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Many developers are familiar with the Graph API, the main way data is retrieved from or posted to Facebook.

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/overview

I was just looking into it and I really can't figure it out. Why is it called the Graph API? Why not the Friends API? Or the FB API?

Code Whisperer
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not a programming question. – CBroe Aug 22 '16 at 10:24
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    Could this be transferred to a more appropriate SO? It's not like the question is totally without merit - this question may come up on a entrance exam for a web developer – Code Whisperer Aug 22 '16 at 16:08
  • @CBroe Maybe shaky ground, but I think it falls under "software tools commonly used by programmers." I got here questioning the scope of another similarly named API with vague documentation. – Eric Eskildsen Jul 03 '18 at 17:43

2 Answers2

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At Facebook, we talk about the "Social Graph" at lot, which is the representation of people, business, groups and all their relationships. Hence, Graph API.

Thiago Moraes
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Yes, it's about the social graph - but even the social graph got its name somehow. In mathematics, a graph is a "function", and can be replaced by a function (and rule). Obviously, a graph can be visual, but it's fundamentally data. In set theory, a set or class can be populated by a graph. Using the Graph API, you make API calls to return sets of JSON data.

Patrick
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