Trees and

Binary Trees
 Nature View of a Tree
leaves

branches
root
 Computer Scientist’s View

root

leaves

branches
nodes
 What is a Tree
• A tree is a finite nonempty
set of elements.
• It is an abstract model of a
hierarchical structure. Computers”R”Us
• consists of nodes with a
parent-child relation.
• Applications: Sales Manufacturing R&D
– Organization charts
– File systems
– Programming environments
US International Laptops Desktops

Europe Asia Canada

 Tree Terminology
• Root: node without parent (A) Subtree: tree consisting of a
• Siblings: nodes share the same parent node and its descendants
• Internal node: node with at least one child
(A, B, C, F)
• External node (leaf ): node without children
(E, I, J, K, G, H, D) A
• Ancestors of a node: parent, grandparent,
grand-grandparent, etc.
• Descendant of a node: child, grandchild,
grand-grandchild, etc. B C D
• Depth of a node: number of ancestors
• Height of a tree: maximum depth of any
node (3)
• Degree of a node: the number of its E F G H
children
• Degree of a tree: the maximum number of
its node.
subtree
I J K
 Tree ADT
• We use positions to abstract Query methods:
nodes boolean isInternal(p)
• Generic methods: boolean isExternal(p)
– integer size() boolean isRoot(p)
– boolean isEmpty() Update methods:
– objectIterator elements() swapElements(p, q)
– positionIterator positions() object replaceElement(p, o)
• Accessor methods: Additional update methods may
– position root() be defined by data structures
– position parent(p) implementing the Tree ADT
– positionIterator children(p)
 Intuitive Representation of Tree Node

List Representation
( A ( B ( E ( K, L ), F ), C ( G ), D ( H ( M ), I, J ) ) )
The root comes first, followed by a list of links to sub-trees

How many link fields are needed in

such a representation?

Data Link 1 Link 2 … Link n

 Trees

• Every tree node:

– object – useful information
– children – pointers to its children

Data

Data Φ Φ Data Φ Data Φ Φ

Data Φ Φ Data Φ Φ Data Φ Φ

 A Tree Representation

• A node is represented by an
object storing ∅
– Element
– Parent node B
– Sequence of children nodes
∅ ∅

A D F
B

A D F
∅ ∅
C E
C E
 Left Child, Right Sibling Representation

Data
Left Right
Child Sibling A

B C D

E F G H I

J K L
 Tree Traversal
• Two main methods:
– Preorder
– Postorder
• Recursive definition

• Preorder:
– visit the root
– traverse in preorder the children (subtrees)

• Postorder
– traverse in postorder the children (subtrees)
– visit the root
 Preorder Traversal
• A traversal visits the nodes of a tree in a Algorithm preOrder(v)
systematic manner
visit(v)
• In a preorder traversal, a node is visited
for each child w of v
before its descendants
preorder (w)
• Application: print a structured
document

1
Become Rich

2 5 9
1. Motivations 2. Methods 3. Success Stories

3 4 6 7 8
1.1 Enjoy 1.2 Help 2.1 Get a 2.2 Start a 2.3 Acquired
Life Poor Friends CS PhD Web Site by Google
 Postorder Traversal
• In a postorder traversal, a node is Algorithm postOrder(v)
visited after its descendants
for each child w of v
• Application: compute space used by
postOrder (w)
files in a directory and its
subdirectories visit(v)

9
cs16/

8
3 7
todo.txt
homeworks/ programs/
1K

1 2 4 5 6
h1c.doc h1nc.doc DDR.java Stocks.java Robot.java
3K 2K 10K 25K 20K
 Binary Tree
• A binary tree is a tree with the following Applications:
properties: arithmetic expressions
– Each internal node has at most two
children (degree of two) decision processes
– The children of a node are an ordered pair searching

• We call the children of an internal node A

left child and right child
• Alternative recursive definition: a binary
tree is either
B C
– a tree consisting of a single node, OR
– a tree whose root has an ordered pair of
children, each of which is a binary tree
D E F G

H I
 BinaryTree ADT
• The BinaryTree ADT extends • Update methods may be
the Tree ADT, i.e., it inherits defined by data structures
all the methods of the Tree implementing the BinaryTree
ADT ADT
• Additional methods:
– position leftChild(p)
– position rightChild(p)
– position sibling(p)
Examples of the Binary Tree
Skewed Binary Tree Complete Binary Tree

A 1 A
A

B B 2 B C

C
3 D E F G
D

E 4 H I
5
 Differences Between A Tree and A Binary Tree

• The subtrees of a binary tree are ordered; those of a tree

are not ordered.

A A

B B

• Are different when viewed as binary trees.

• Are the same when viewed as trees.
 Data Structure for Binary Trees
• A node is represented by
an object storing ∅
– Element
– Parent node
– Left child node B
– Right child node

∅ ∅

B A D

A D ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅

C E
C E
 Arithmetic Expression Tree

• Binary tree associated with an arithmetic expression

– internal nodes: operators
– external nodes: operands
• Example: arithmetic expression tree for the expression (2 × (a − 1) +
(3 × b))

× ×

2 − 3 b

a 1
 Decision Tree
• Binary tree associated with a decision process
– internal nodes: questions with yes/no answer
– external nodes: decisions
• Example: dining decision

Want a fast meal?

Yes No

How about coffee? On expense account?

Yes No Yes No

Starbucks Spike’s Al Forno Café Paragon

Maximum Number of Nodes in a
Binary Tree

The maximum number of nodes on depth i of a

binary tree is 2i, i>=0.
The maximum nubmer of nodes in a binary tree of
height k is 2k+1-1, k>=0.

Prove by induction.
k
k +1
∑ 2 i
= 2 −1
i =0
 Relations between Number of
Leaf Nodes and Nodes of Degree 2

For any nonempty binary tree, T, if n0 is the

number of leaf nodes and n2 the number of nodes
of degree 2, then n0=n2+1

PROOF:
Let n and B denote the total number of nodes and branches in T.
Let n0, n1, n2 represent the nodes with no children, single child, and
two children respectively.

B+1=n
B=n1+2n2
n=n0+n1+n2
⇒ n1+2n2+1= n
⇒ n0=n2+1
 Full Binary Tree
• A full binary tree of a given height k has 2k+1–1 nodes.

Height 3 full binary tree.

 Labeling Nodes In A Full Binary Tree

• Label the nodes 1 through 2k+1 – 1.

• Label by levels from top to bottom.
• Within a level, label from left to right.
1

2 3

4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 Node Number Properties
1

2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

• Parent of node i is node i / 2, unless i = 1.

• Node 1 is the root and has no parent.
 Node Number Properties
1

2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

• Left child of node i is node 2i, unless 2i > n, where n is the

number of nodes.
• If 2i > n, node i has no left child.
 Node Number Properties
1

2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
• Right child of node i is node 2i+1, unless 2i+1 > n, where n is
the number of nodes.
• If 2i+1 > n, node i has no right child.
 Complete Binary Trees
A labeled binary tree containing the labels 1 to n with root 1, branches
leading to nodes labeled 2 and 3, branches from these leading to 4, 5 and
6, 7, respectively, and so on.
A binary tree with n nodes and level k is complete iff its nodes
correspond to the nodes numbered from 1 to n in the full binary tree of
level k.

1 1

2 2 3
3

4 5 6 7 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
8 9
Complete binary tree Full binary tree of depth 3
Binary Tree Traversals
Let l, R, and r stand for moving left, visiting
the node, and moving right.

There are six possible combinations of traversal

lRr, lrR, Rlr, Rrl, rRl, rlR

Adopt convention that we traverse left before

right, only 3 traversals remain
lRr, lrR, Rlr
inorder, postorder, preorder
 Inorder Traversal
• In an inorder traversal a node is Algorithm inOrder(v)
visited after its left subtree and
before its right subtree if isInternal (v)
inOrder (leftChild (v))
visit(v)
if isInternal (v)
inOrder (rightChild (v))
6

2 8

1 4 7 9

3 5
 Print Arithmetic Expressions
• Specialization of an inorder traversal Algorithm inOrder (v)
– print operand or operator when if isInternal (v){
visiting node
– print “(“ before traversing left print(“(’’)
subtree inOrder (leftChild (v))}
– print “)“ after traversing right subtree
print(v.element ())
if isInternal (v){
inOrder (rightChild (v))
+ print (“)’’)}

× ×

2 − 3 b ((2 × (a − 1)) + (3 × b))

a 1
 Evaluate Arithmetic Expressions

• recursive method returning Algorithm evalExpr(v)

the value of a subtree if isExternal (v)
• when visiting an internal node, return v.element ()
combine the values of the
subtrees else
x ← evalExpr(leftChild (v))
y ← evalExpr(rightChild (v))
◊ ← operator stored at v
+ return x ◊ y

× ×

2 − 3 2

5 1
 Creativity:
pathLength(tree) = Σ depth(v) ∀v ∈ tree
Algorithm pathLength(v, n)
Input: a tree node v and an initial value n
Output: the pathLength of the tree with root v
Usage: pl = pathLength(root, 0);

if isExternal (v)
return n
return
(pathLength(leftChild (v), n + 1) +
pathLength(rightChild (v), n + 1) + n)
 Euler Tour Traversal
• Generic traversal of a binary tree
• Includes a special cases the preorder, postorder and inorder traversals
• Walk around the tree and visit each node three times:
– on the left (preorder)
– from below (inorder)
– on the right (postorder)

L × R ×
B
2 − 3 2

5 1
 Euler Tour Traversal
eulerTour(node v) {
perform action for visiting node on the left;
if v is internal then
eulerTour(v->left);
perform action for visiting node from below;
if v is internal then
eulerTour(v->right);
perform action for visiting node on the right;
}