Let G be a graph and let mij(G), i, j ≥ 1, be the number of edges uv of G such that {dv(G), du(G)} = {i, j}. TheM -polynomial ofG is introduced withM(G;x, y) = ∑ i≤j mij(G)x y . It is shown that degree-based topological indices can be routinely computed from the polynomial, thus reducing the problem of their determination in each particular case to the single problem of determining the M -polyn...