UNIT-V

TREES AND BINARY TREES

TREES

INTRODUCTION
In linear data structure data is organized in sequential order and in non-linear data structure
data is organized in random order. A tree is a very popular non-linear data structure used in
a wide range of applications. Tree is a non-linear data structure which organizes data in
hierarchical structure and this is a recursive definition.
DEFINITION OF TREE:
Tree is collection of nodes (or) vertices and their edges (or) links. In tree data structure,
every individual element is called as Node. Node in a tree data structure stores the actual
data of that particular element and link to next element in hierarchical structure.

Note: 1. In a Tree, if we have N number of nodes then we can have a maximum of N-

1 number of links or edges.
2. Tree has no cycles.
TREE TERMINOLOGIES:
1. Root Node: In a Tree data structure, the first node is called as Root Node. Every tree
must have a root node. We can say that the root node is the origin of the tree data
structure. In any tree, there must be only one root node. We never have multiple root
nodes in a tree.

2. Edge: In a Tree, the connecting link between any two nodes is called as EDGE. In a tree
with 'N' number of nodes there will be a maximum of 'N-1' number of edges.

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3. Parent Node: In a Tree, the node which is a predecessor of any node is called as PARENT
NODE. In simple words, the node which has a branch from it to any other node is called a
parent node. Parent node can also be defined as "The node which has child / children".

Here, A is parent of B&C. B is the parent of D,E&F and so on…

4. Child Node: In a Tree data structure, the node which is descendant of any node is called
as CHILD Node. In simple words, the node which has a link from its parent node is called as
child node. In a tree, any parent node can have any number of child nodes. In a tree, all the
nodes except root are child nodes.

5. Siblings: In a Tree data structure, nodes which belong to same Parent are called
as SIBLINGS. In simple words, the nodes with the same parent are called Sibling nodes.

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6. Leaf Node: In a Tree data structure, the node which does not have a child is called
as LEAF Node. In simple words, a leaf is a node with no child. In a tree data structure, the
leaf nodes are also called as External Nodes. External node is also a node with no child. In a
tree, leaf node is also called as 'Terminal' node.

7. Internal Nodes: In a Tree data structure, the node which has atleast one child is called
as INTERNAL Node. In simple words, an internal node is a node with atleast one child.

In a Tree data structure, nodes other than leaf nodes are called as Internal Nodes. The root
node is also said to be Internal Node if the tree has more than one node. Internal nodes are
also called as 'Non-Terminal' nodes.

8. Degree: In a Tree data structure, the total number of children of a node is called
as DEGREE of that Node. In simple words, the Degree of a node is total number of children it
has. The highest degree of a node among all the nodes in a tree is called as 'Degree of Tree'

Degree of Tree is: 3

9. Level: In a Tree data structure, the root node is said to be at Level 0 and the children of
root node are at Level 1 and the children of the nodes which are at Level 1 will be at Level 2

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and so on... In simple words, in a tree each step from top to bottom is called as a Level and
the Level count starts with '0' and incremented by one at each level (Step).

10. Height: In a Tree data structure, the total number of edges from leaf node to a particular
node in the longest path is called as HEIGHT of that Node. In a tree, height of the root node
is said to be height of the tree. In a tree, height of all leaf nodes is '0'.

11. Depth: In a Tree data structure, the total number of egdes from root node to a
particular node is called as DEPTH of that Node. In a tree, the total number of edges from
root node to a leaf node in the longest path is said to be Depth of the tree. In simple words,
the highest depth of any leaf node in a tree is said to be depth of that tree. In a tree, depth
of the root node is '0'.

12. Path: In a Tree data structure, the sequence of Nodes and Edges from one node to
another node is called as PATH between that two Nodes. Length of a Path is total number
of nodes in that path. In below example the path A - B - E - J has length 4.

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13. Sub Tree: In a Tree data structure, each child from a node forms a subtree recursively.
Every child node will form a subtree on its parent node.

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BINARY TREE:

In a normal tree, every node can have any number of children. A binary tree is a special type
of tree data structure in which every node can have a maximum of 2 children. One is known
as a left child and the other is known as right child.

A tree in which every node can have a maximum of two children is called Binary Tree.
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In a binary tree, every node can have either 0 children or 1 child or 2 children but not more
than 2 children.

In general, tree nodes can have any number of children. In a binary tree, each node can
have at most two children. A binary tree is either empty or consists of a node called the root
together with two binary trees called the left subtree and the right subtree. A tree with no
nodes is called as a null tree

Example:

TYPES OF BINARY TREE:

1. Strictly Binary Tree:
In a binary tree, every node can have a maximum of two children. But in strictly binary tree,
every node should have exactly two children or none. That means every internal node must
have exactly two children. A strictly Binary Tree can be defined as follows...
A binary tree in which every node has either two or zero number of children is called
Strictly Binary Tree
Strictly binary tree is also called as Full Binary Tree or Proper Binary Tree or 2-Tree.

Strictly binary tree data structure is used to represent mathematical expressions.

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Example

2. Complete Binary Tree:

In a binary tree, every node can have a maximum of two children. But in strictly binary tree,
every node should have exactly two children or none and in complete binary tree all the
nodes must have exactly two children and at every level of complete binary tree there must
be 2level number of nodes. For example at level 2 there must be 22 = 4 nodes and at level 3
there must be 23 = 8 nodes.
A binary tree in which every internal node has exactly two children and all leaf nodes are
at same level is called Complete Binary Tree.

Complete binary tree is also called as Perfect Binary Tree.

3. Extended Binary Tree:

A binary tree can be converted into Full Binary tree by adding dummy nodes to existing
nodes wherever required.
The full binary tree obtained by adding dummy nodes to a binary tree is called as
Extended Binary Tree.

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In above figure, a normal binary tree is converted into full binary tree by adding dummy
nodes.
4. Skewed Binary Tree:
If a tree which is dominated by left child node or right child node, is said to be a Skewed
Binary Tree.
In a skewed binary tree, all nodes except one have only one child node. The remaining
node has no child.

In a left skewed tree, most of the nodes have the left child without corresponding right
child.
In a right skewed tree, most of the nodes have the right child without corresponding left
child.

BINARY TREE REPRESENTATIONS:

A binary tree data structure is represented using two methods. Those methods are as
follows...
1. Array Representation
2. Linked List Representation
Consider the following binary tree...

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1. Array Representation of Binary Tree
In array representation of a binary tree, we use one-dimensional array (1-D Array) to
represent a binary tree.
Consider the above example of a binary tree and it is represented as follows...

To represent a binary tree of depth 'n' using array representation, we need one dimensional
array with a maximum size of 2n + 1.
2. Linked List Representation of Binary Tree
We use a double linked list to represent a binary tree. In a double linked list, every node
consists of three fields. First field for storing left child address, second for storing actual
data and third for the right child address.
In this linked list representation, a node has the following structure...

The above example of the binary tree represented using Linked list representation is shown
as follows...

BINARY TREE TRAVERSALS:

Unlike linear data structures (Array, Linked List, Queues, Stacks, etc) which have only one
logical way to traverse them, binary trees can be traversed in different ways. Following are
the generally used ways for traversing binary trees.
When we wanted to display a binary tree, we need to follow some order in which all the
nodes of that binary tree must be displayed. In any binary tree, displaying order of nodes
depends on the traversal method.
Displaying (or) visiting order of nodes in a binary tree is called as Binary Tree Traversal.
There are three types of binary tree traversals.
1. In - Order Traversal
2. Pre - Order Traversal
3. Post - Order Traversal
1. In - Order Traversal (left Child - root - right Child):

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In In-Order traversal, the root node is visited between the left child and right child. In this
traversal, the left child node is visited first, then the root node is visited and later we go for
visiting the right child node. This in-order traversal is applicable for every root node of all
sub trees in the tree. This is performed recursively for all nodes in the tree.
Algorithm:
Step-1: Visit the left subtree, using inorder.
Step-2: Visit the root.
Step-3: Visit the right subtree, using inorder.

In the above example of a binary tree, first we try to visit left child of root node 'A', but A's
left child 'B' is a root node for left subtree. so we try to visit its (B's) left child 'D' and again D
is a root for subtree with nodes D, I and J. So we try to visit its left child 'I' and it is the
leftmost child. So first we visit 'I' then go for its root node 'D' and later we visit D's right
child 'J'. With this we have completed the left part of node B. Then visit 'B' and next B's right
child 'F' is visited. With this we have completed left part of node A. Then visit root node 'A'.
With this we have completed left and root parts of node A. Then we go for the right part of
the node A. In right of A again there is a subtree with root C. So go for left child of C and
again it is a subtree with root G. But G does not have left part so we visit 'G' and then visit
G's right child K. With this we have completed the left part of node C. Then visit root
node 'C' and next visit C's right child 'H' which is the rightmost child in the tree. So we stop
the process.
That means here we have visited in the order of I - D - J - B - F - A - G - K - C - H using In-
Order Traversal.
2. Pre - Order Traversal ( root - leftChild - rightChild ):
In Pre-Order traversal, the root node is visited before the left child and right child nodes. In
this traversal, the root node is visited first, then its left child and later its right child. This pre-
order traversal is applicable for every root node of all subtrees in the tree. Preorder search
is also called backtracking.
Algorithm:
Step-1: Visit the root.
Step-2: Visit the left subtree, using preorder.
Step-3: Visit the right subtree, using preorder.

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In the above example of binary tree, first we visit root node 'A' then visit its left
child 'B' which is a root for D and F. So we visit B's left child 'D' and again D is a root for I and
J. So we visit D's left child 'I' which is the leftmost child. So next we go for visiting D's right
child 'J'. With this we have completed root, left and right parts of node D and root, left parts
of node B. Next visit B's right child 'F'. With this we have completed root and left parts of
node A. So we go for A's right child 'C' which is a root node for G and H. After visiting C, we
go for its left child 'G' which is a root for node K. So next we visit left of G, but it does not
have left child so we go for G's right child 'K'. With this, we have completed node C's root
and left parts. Next visit C's right child 'H' which is the rightmost child in the tree. So we stop
the process.
That means here we have visited in the order of A-B-D-I-J-F-C-G-K-H using Pre-Order
Traversal.
3. Post - Order Traversal ( leftChild - rightChild - root ):
In Post-Order traversal, the root node is visited after left child and right child. In this
traversal, left child node is visited first, then its right child and then its root node. This is
recursively performed until the right most nodes are visited.
Algorithm:
Step-1: Visit the left subtree, using postorder.
Step-2: Visit the right subtree, using postorder
Step-3: Visit the root.

Here we have visited in the order of I - J - D - F - B - K - G - H - C - A using Post-Order

Traversal.

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