Data Structures & Algorithms

Trees
 Trees
• So far we did linear data structures
• There are a number of applications where linear
data structures are not appropriate.
• Trees are non-linear
• Allow much more efficient implementations of
algorithms
• Also, tree structure is the natural form of many
types of data
• Therefore, are seen commonly in file systems,
GUIs, databases, websites etc.
 Trees
• For the linear context, in our earlier data
structures, there was a before and after
relationship between elements
• The relationship between elements in
trees is hierarchical, with elements being
above and below each other
• The terminology comes from family tree,
so we will be using terminology such as
parent, child, ancestor, descendant etc.
 Tree of a Family

Muhammad Saleem

Shahid Saleem Zahid Saleem Shahzad Saleem

Arham Noor Hadid Hashim Fahd Ahmad Sara Omer

 University Hierarchy
• Hierarchical structure of a university
shown asa tree.
 Tree
• A tree is an abstract data type that stores
elements hierarchically
• With the exception of the top element,
known as the root, each element in a tree
has a parent element and zero or more
children elements
External or leaf nodes?
 Tree Data Structure
• A linear linked list will not be able to capture
the tree-like relationship with ease.
• Shortly, we will see that for applications that
require searching, linear data structures are not
suitable.
• A node in tree can have any number of
children.
• We will focus our attention on binary trees.
 Binary Tree
• A binary tree is a finite set of elements that is either
empty or is partitioned into three disjoint subsets.
• The first subset contains a single element called the
root of the tree.
• The other two subsets are themselves binary trees
called the left and right subtrees.
• Each element of a binary tree is called a node of the
tree.
 Binary Tree
• Binary tree with 9 nodes.
A

B C

D E F

G H I
 Binary Tree
root

B C

D E F

G H I

Left subtree Right subtree

 Binary Tree
• Recursive definition
A
root

B C

D E F

Left subtree G H I

Right subtree
 Binary Tree
• Recursive definition
A

B C
root

D E F

G H I

Left subtree
 Binary Tree
• Recursive definition
A

B C

D E F

root
G H I
 Binary Tree
• Recursive definition
A
root

B C

D E F

G H I

Right subtree
 Binary Tree
• Recursive definition
A

B C
root

D E F

G H I

Left subtree Right subtree

 Not a Tree
• Structures that are not trees.
A

B C

D E F

G H I
 Not a Tree
• Structures that are not trees.
A

B C

D E F

G H I
 Not a Tree
• Structures that are not trees.
A

B C

D E F

G H I
 Binary Tree: Terminology

parent
A

Left descendant B C Right descendant

D E F

G H I

Leaf nodes Leaf nodes

 Binary Tree
• If every non-leaf node in a binary tree has non-empty left and right subtrees,
the tree is termed a strictly binary tree.

B C

D E J F

G K H I
 Level of a Binary Tree Node
• The level of a node in a binary tree is defined
as follows:
▪ Root has level 0,
▪ Level of any other node is one more than the level
its parent.
• The depth of a binary tree is the maximum
level of any leaf in the tree.
 Level of a Binary Tree Node

A 0 Level 0

B 1 C 1 Level 1

D 2 E 2 F 2 Level 2

G 3 H 3 I 3 Level 3
 Complete Binary Tree
• A complete binary tree of depth d is the strictly
binary all of whose leaves are at level d.
0
A

B 1 C 1

D 2 E 2 F 2 G 2

H 3 I J 3 K L 3 M 3 N 3 O 3
 Complete Binary Tree

A Level 0: 20 nodes

B C Level 1: 21 nodes

D E F G Level 2: 22 nodes

H I J K L M N O Level 3: 23 nodes
 Complete Binary Tree
• At level k, there are 2k nodes.
• Total number of nodes in the tree of depth d:

20+ 21+ 22 + ………. + 2d = d

2 j
= 2d+1
–1
j=0
• In a complete binary tree, there are 2d leaf
nodes and (2d - 1) non-leaf (inner) nodes.
 Complete Binary Tree
• If the tree is built out of ‘n’ nodes then

n = 2d+1 – 1
or log2(n+1) = d+1
or d = log2(n+1) – 1
• I.e., the depth of the complete binary tree built using
‘n’ nodes will be log2(n+1) – 1.
• For example, for n=1,000,000, log2(1000001) is less
than 20; the tree would be 20 levels deep.
• The significance of this shallowness will become
evident later.
 Operations on Binary Tree
• There are a number of operations that can be
defined for a binary tree.
• If p is pointing to a node in an existing tree
then
▪ left(p) returns pointer to the left subtree
▪ right(p) returns pointer to right subtree
▪ parent(p) returns the parent of p
▪ sibling(p) returns sibling of p.
▪ info(p) returns content of the node.
 Implementation of Binary Tree
• Binary trees can be implemented in at
least two ways
– As arrays
– As linked structures
 Binary Tree as Array
• 0 index based sequencing
– The root is always located in the first cell, cell 0,
and –1 indicates a null child
– The key concept is that, if a parent is stored in
location k, then its left and right child are located
in locations 2k+1 and 2k+2 respectively
• 1 index based sequencing
– The root is always located in the second cell, cell
1, and –1 indicates a null child
– The key concept is that, if a parent is stored in
location k, then its left and right child are located
in locations 2k and 2k+1 respectively
 13

10 25

2 12 20 31

29
 Binary Tree: As Array
0 index based sequencing
Index Info Left Right
0 13 1 2
13
1 10 3 4
2 25 5 6
3 2
10 25
4 12
5 20
6 31 13
7 2 12 20 31
8
9
10 29
11
12
13 29