How do I find the shortest way through a list of connected waypoints?

Question

public class Waypoint
{
    System.Drawing.Point _loc = new System.Drawing.Point();
    public System.Drawing.Point Location { get { return _loc; } }

    List<Waypoint> _connections = new List<Waypoint>();
    public List<Waypoint> Connections { get { return _connections; } }

    public Waypoint() { }

    public Waypoint(int x, int y) { _loc = new System.Drawing.Point(x, y); }
}

... is my class of Waypoints.
I need to find the shortest way from Waypoint A to Waypoint B.
The waypoints are inter-connected. (example: X.Connections contains Y so Y.Connections contains X)
When I designed the system, I have had in mind a way to find them... But it doesn't work.

Answer 1

What you want is the A* algorithm.

A* is an extension of the Dijkstra's algorithm but uses a heuristic to estimate the distance left to the final destination (like breadth-first-search does). It is the best of both worlds. :)

The Amit's pages are great to learn the whole algorithm but for a smoother introduction check out this link. It took me a while to understand how A* works but the time spent learning it was really worth it in my opinion.