Categorial properties of compressed zero-divisor graphs of finite commutative rings

We define a compressed zero-divisor graph $\Theta (K)$ of a finite commutative unital ring $K$, where the compression is performed by means of the associatedness relation. We prove that this is the best possible compression which induces a functor $\Theta$, and that this functor preserves categorial products (in both directions). We use the structure of $\Theta (K)$ to characterize important classes of finite commutative unital rings, such as local rings and principal ideal rings.