Let $f:R\to S$ be a ring homomorphism and J be an ideal of S. Then the subring $R\bowtie ^fJ:=\{(r,f(r)+j)\mid r\in R$ and $j\in J\}$ of $R\times S$ is called the amalgamation of R with S along J with respect to f. In this paper, we characterize when $R\bowtie ^fJ$ is a Hilbert ring. As an application, we provide an example of Hilbert ring with maximal ideals of different heights. We also construct non-Noetherian Hilbert rings whose maximal ideals are all finitely generated (unruly Hilbert rings).

Let $P$ be a finitely generated cancellative abelian monoid. A $P$-graph ${\rm\Lambda}$ is a natural generalization of a $k$-graph. A pullback of ${\rm\Lambda}$ is constructed by pulling it back over a given monoid morphism to $P$, while a pushout of ${\rm\Lambda}$ is obtained by modding out its periodicity, which is deduced from a natural equivalence relation on ${\rm\Lambda}$. One of our main results in this paper shows that, for some $k$-graphs ${\rm\Lambda}$, ${\rm\Lambda}$ is isomorphic to the pullback of its pushout via a natural quotient map, and that its graph $\text{C}^{\ast }$-algebra can be embedded into the tensor product of the graph $\text{C}^{\ast }$-algebra of its pushout and $\text{C}^{\ast }(\text{Per}\,{\rm\Lambda})$. As a consequence, in this case, the cycline algebra generated by the standard generators corresponding to equivalent pairs is a maximal abelian subalgebra, and there is a faithful conditional expectation from the graph $\text{C}^{\ast }$-algebra onto it.

The notions of limits and colimits are studied in the category of C*-algebras. It is shown that limits and colimits of diagrams of C*-algebras are stable under tensor product by a fixed C*-algebra, and crossed product by a locally compact group.