Threaded Binary Tree

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Threaded Trees
◼ Binary trees have a lot of wasted space: the
leaf nodes each have 2 null pointers
◼ We can use these pointers to help us in
inorder traversals
◼ We have the pointers reference the next
node in an inorder traversal; called threads
◼ We need to know if a pointer is an actual link
or a thread, so we keep a boolean for each
pointer, right pointer points to its inorder
successor.
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Threaded Tree Code

◼ Example code:
typedef struct Node {
Node *left, *right;
int rightThread;
}

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Threaded Tree Example

6
3 8
1 5 7 11
9 13

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Types of threaded binary trees
◼ Single Threaded: each node is threaded towards
either the in-order predecessor or successor (left
or right) means all right null pointers will point to
inorder successor OR all left null pointers will
point to inorder predecessor.
◼ Double threaded: each node is threaded
towards both the in-order predecessor and
successor (left and right) means all right null
pointers will point to inorder successor AND all
left null pointers will point to inorder
predecessor.

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6
Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1

3 8
1 5 7 11
9 13
Start at leftmost node, print it

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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3

3 8
1 5 7 11
9 13
Follow thread to right, print node

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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8
1 5 7 11
9 13
Follow link to right, go to
leftmost node and print
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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8 6

1 5 7 11
9 13
Follow thread to right, print node

10
Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8 6
7
1 5 7 11
9 13
Follow link to right, go to
leftmost node and print
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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8 6
7
1 5 7 11 8

9 13
Follow thread to right, print node

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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8 6
7
1 5 7 11 8
9

9 13
Follow link to right, go to
leftmost node and print
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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8 6
7
1 5 7 11 8
9
11
9 13
Follow thread to right, print node

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Threaded Tree Traversal
Output
6 1
3
5
3 8 6
7
1 5 7 11 8
9
11
9 13 13

Follow link to right, go to

leftmost node and print
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Threaded Tree Traversal Code
Node leftMost(Node n) { void inOrder(Node n) {
Node ans = n; Node cur = leftmost(n);
if (ans == null) { while (cur != null) {
return null; print(cur);
if (cur.rightThread) {
} cur = cur.right;
while (ans.left != null) { } else {
ans = ans.left; cur = leftmost(cur.right);
} }
return ans; }
} }

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Two way Threading

◼ We’re still wasting pointers, since half of our

leafs’ pointers are still null
◼ We can add threads to the previous node in
an inorder traversal as well, which we can
use to traverse the tree backwards or even to
do postorder traversals

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Threaded Tree Modification

6
3 8
1 5 7 11
9 13

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