# Linking elements

You can link the different pads of elements together so that the elements form a chain.

## Visualisation of three linked elements

By linking these three elements, we have created a very simple chain. The effect of this will be that the output of the source element (element1) will be used as input for the filter element (element2). The filter element will do something with the data and send the result to the final sink element (element3).

Imagine the above graph as a simple MPEG audio decoder. The source element is a disk source, the filter element is the MPEG decoder and the sink element is your audiocard. We will use this simple graph to construct an MPEG player later in this manual.