Data Structure and Algorithms –

B Trees

Bhabani Shankar Pradhan

B trees are extended binary search trees that are specialized in m-way
searching, since the order of B trees is ‘m’. Order of a tree is defined as the
maximum number of children a node can accommodate. Therefore, the height
of a b tree is relatively smaller than the height of AVL tree and RB tree.

They are general form of a Binary Search Tree as it holds more than one key
and two children.

The various properties of B trees include −

 Every node in a B Tree will hold a maximum of m children and (m-1)

keys, since the order of the tree is m.

 Every node in a B tree, except root and leaf, can hold at least m/2
children

 The root node must have no less than two children.

 All the paths in a B tree must end at the same level, i.e. the leaf nodes
must be at the same level.

 A B tree always maintains sorted data.

B trees are also widely used in disk access, minimizing the disk access time
since the height of a b tree is low.
Note − A disk access is the memory access to the computer disk where the
information is stored and disk access time is the time taken by the system to
access the disk memory.

Basic Operations of B Trees

The operations supported in B trees are Insertion, deletion and searching with
the time complexity of O(log n) for every operation.

Insertion

The insertion operation for a B Tree is done similar to the Binary Search Tree
but the elements are inserted into the same node until the maximum keys are
reached. The insertion is done using the following procedure −

Step 1 − Calculate the maximum $\mathrm{\left ( m-1 \right )}$ and minimum $\
mathrm{\left ( \left \lceil \frac{m}{2}\right \rceil-1 \right )}$ number of keys a
node can hold, where m is denoted by the order of the B Tree.

Step 2 − The data is inserted into the tree using the binary search insertion and
once the keys reach the maximum number, the node is split into half and the
median key becomes the internal node while the left and right keys become its
children.
Step 3 − All the leaf nodes must be on the same level.

The keys, 5, 3, 21, 9, 13 are all added into the node according to the binary
search property but if we add the key 22, it will violate the maximum key
property. Hence, the node is split in half, the median key is shifted to the
parent node and the insertion is then continued.
Another hiccup occurs during the insertion of 11, so the node is split and
median is shifted to the parent.

While inserting 16, even if the node is split in two parts, the parent node also
overflows as it reached the maximum keys. Hence, the parent node is split first
and the median key becomes the root. Then, the leaf node is split in half the
median of leaf node is shifted to its parent.

The final B tree after inserting all the elements is achieved.

Example

// Insert the value

void insertion(int item) {

int flag, i;

struct btreeNode *child;

flag = setNodeValue(item, &i, root, &child);

if (flag)

root = createNode(i, child);

}
Deletion

The deletion operation in a B tree is slightly different from the deletion

operation of a Binary Search Tree. The procedure to delete a node from a B
tree is as follows −

Case 1 − If the key to be deleted is in a leaf node and the deletion does not
violate the minimum key property, just delete the node.
Case 2 − If the key to be deleted is in a leaf node but the deletion violates the
minimum key property, borrow a key from either its left sibling or right sibling.
In case if both siblings have exact minimum number of keys, merge the node
in either of them.

Case 3 − If the key to be deleted is in an internal node, it is replaced by a key in

either left child or right child based on which child has more keys. But if both
child nodes have minimum number of keys, they’re merged together.
Case 4 − If the key to be deleted is in an internal node violating the minimum
keys property, and both its children and sibling have minimum number of
keys, merge the children. Then merge its sibling with its parent.
Following is functional C++ code snippet of the deletion operation in B Trees −

// Deletion operation

void deletion(int key){

int index = searchkey(key);

if (index < n && keys[index] == key) {

if (leaf)

deletion_at_leaf(index);

else

deletion_at_nonleaf(index);

} else {

if (leaf) {

cout << "key " << key << " does not exist in the tree\n";

return;

bool flag = ((index == n) ? true : false);

if (C[index]->n < t)

fill(index);

if (flag && index > n)

C[index - 1]->deletion(key);

else

C[index]->deletion(key);

return;
}

// Deletion at the leaf nodes

void deletion_at_leaf(int index){

for (int i = index + 1; i < n; ++i)

keys[i - 1] = keys[i];

n--;

return;

// Deletion at the non leaf node

void deletion_at_nonleaf(int index){

int key = keys[index];

if (C[index]->n >= t) {

int pred = get_Predecessor(index);

keys[index] = pred;

C[index]->deletion(pred);

} else if (C[index + 1]->n >= t) {

int successor = copysuccessoressor(index);

 keys[index] = successor;

C[index + 1]->deletion(successor);

} else {

merge(index);

C[index]->deletion(key);

return;

C++ Implementation

Following is the complete implementation of B Trees in C++ −

#include<iostream>

using namespace std;

struct BTree {//node declaration

int *d;

BTree **child_ptr;

bool l;

int n;

}*r = NULL, *np = NULL, *x = NULL;

BTree* init() {//creation of node

int i;

np = new BTree;

np->d = new int[6];//order 6

np->child_ptr = new BTree *[7];

np->l = true;

np->n = 0;

for (i = 0; i < 7; i++) {

np->child_ptr[i] = NULL;

return np;

void traverse(BTree *p) { //traverse the tree

cout<<endl;

int i;

for (i = 0; i < p->n; i++) {

if (p->l == false) {

traverse(p->child_ptr[i]);
 }

cout << " " << p->d[i];

if (p->l == false) {

traverse(p->child_ptr[i]);

cout<<endl;

void sort(int *p, int n){ //sort the tree

int i, j, t;

for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

for (j = i; j <= n; j++) {

if (p[i] >p[j]) {

t = p[i];

p[i] = p[j];

p[j] = t;

}
 }

int split_child(BTree *x, int i) {

int j, mid;

BTree *np1, *np3, *y;

np3 = init();//create new node

np3->l = true;

if (i == -1) {

mid = x->d[2];//find mid

x->d[2] = 0;

x->n--;

np1 = init();

np1->l= false;

x->l= true;

for (j = 3; j < 6; j++) {

np3->d[j - 3] = x->d[j];

np3->child_ptr[j - 3] = x->child_ptr[j];

np3->n++;
 x->d[j] = 0;

x->n--;

for (j = 0; j < 6; j++) {

x->child_ptr[j] = NULL;

np1->d[0] = mid;

np1->child_ptr[np1->n] = x;

np1->child_ptr[np1->n + 1] = np3;

np1->n++;

r = np1;

} else {

y = x->child_ptr[i];

mid = y->d[2];

y->d[2] = 0;

y->n--;

for (j = 3; j <6 ; j++) {

np3->d[j - 3] = y->d[j];

np3->n++;
 y->d[j] = 0;

y->n--;

x->child_ptr[i + 1] = y;

x->child_ptr[i + 1] = np3;

return mid;

void insert(int a) {

int i, t;

x = r;

if (x == NULL) {

r = init();

x = r;

} else {

if (x->l== true && x->n == 6) {

t = split_child(x, -1);

x = r;
 for (i = 0; i < (x->n); i++) {

if ((a >x->d[i]) && (a < x->d[i + 1])) {

i++;

break;

} else if (a < x->d[0]) {

break;

} else {

continue;

x = x->child_ptr[i];

} else {

while (x->l == false) {

for (i = 0; i < (x->n); i++) {

if ((a >x->d[i]) && (a < x->d[i + 1])) {

i++;

break;

} else if (a < x->d[0]) {

break;
 } else {

continue;

if ((x->child_ptr[i])->n == 6) {

t = split_child(x, i);

x->d[x->n] = t;

x->n++;

continue;

} else {

x = x->child_ptr[i];

x->d[x->n] = a;

sort(x->d, x->n);

x->n++;

}
int main() {

int i, n, t;

insert(10);

insert(20);

insert(30);

insert(40);

insert(50);

cout<<"B tree:\n";

traverse(r);

Output

B tree:

10 20 30 40 50