Question

Having single edges originate from a Graphviz record field is very straightforward and easy to control via ports and compass points.

I have a need, though, to have multiple edges originate from a single record field. The syntax of the DOT language does not appear to support this. Subgraphs may work for me, but the depiction of records is really the best representation of the data records.

Answer 1

have multiple edges originate from a single record field

I’m not really sure why the syntax of the dot language would not allow it. For example:

digraph g{
  r[label="<f0> left|<f1> middle|<f2> right", shape=record];
  r:f0 -> {a;b;};
  r:f2 -> c;
  r:f2 -> d;
}

The fields f0 and f2 have both more than one outgoing edge.

By the way, though record shapes still work, it seems as if HTML-like labels are replacing them. From the graphivz web site:

The record-based shape has largely been superseded and greatly
generalized by HTML-like labels. That is, instead of using
shape=record, one might consider using shape=none and an HTML-like
label.