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Threaded Binary Tree

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Threaded Binary Tree

Uploaded by

amutha d
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Threaded Binary Tree

In this article, we will understand about the threaded binary tree in detail.

What do you mean by Threaded Binary Tree?

In the linked representation of binary trees, more than one half of the link fields
contain NULL values which results in wastage of storage space. If a binary tree
consists of n nodes then n+1 link fields contain NULL values. So in order to
effectively manage the space, a method was devised by Perlis and Thornton in
which the NULL links are replaced with special links known as threads. Such binary
trees with threads are known as threaded binary trees. Each node in a threaded
binary tree either contains a link to its child node or thread to other nodes in the tree.

Types of Threaded Binary Tree


There are two types of threaded Binary Tree:

o One-way threaded Binary Tree


o Two-way threaded Binary Tree
One-way threaded Binary trees:
In one-way threaded binary trees, a thread will appear either in the right or left link
field of a node. If it appears in the right link field of a node then it will point to the next
node that will appear on performing in order traversal. Such trees are called Right
threaded binary trees. If thread appears in the left field of a node then it will point to
the nodes inorder predecessor. Such trees are called Left threaded binary
trees. Left threaded binary trees are used less often as they don't yield the last
advantages of right threaded binary trees. In one-way threaded binary trees, the
right link field of last node and left link field of first node contains a NULL. In order to
distinguish threads from normal links they are represented by dotted lines.

The above figure shows the inorder traversal of this binary tree yields D, B, E, A, C,
F. When this tree is represented as a right threaded binary tree, the right link field of
leaf node D which contains a NULL value is replaced with a thread that points to
node B which is the inorder successor of a node D. In the same way other nodes
containing values in the right link field will contain NULL value.
Two-way threaded Binary Trees:

In two-way threaded Binary trees, the right link field of a node containing NULL
values is replaced by a thread that points to nodes inorder successor and left field of
a node containing NULL values is replaced by a thread that points to nodes inorder
predecessor.

The above figure shows the inorder traversal of this binary tree yields D, B, E, G, A,
C, F. If we consider the two-way threaded Binary tree, the node E whose left field
contains NULL is replaced by a thread pointing to its inorder predecessor i.e. node
B. Similarly, for node G whose right and left linked fields contain NULL values are
replaced by threads such that right link field points to its inorder successor and left
link field points to its inorder predecessor. In the same way, other nodes containing
NULL values in their link fields are filled with threads.
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In the above figure of two-way threaded Binary tree, we noticed that no left thread is
possible for the first node and no right thread is possible for the last node. This is
because they don't have any inorder predecessor and successor respectively. This
is indicated by threads pointing nowhere. So in order to maintain the uniformity of
threads, we maintain a special node called the header node. The header node does
not contain any data part and its left link field points to the root node and its right link
field points to itself. If this header node is included in the two-way threaded Binary
tree then this node becomes the inorder predecessor of the first node and inorder
successor of the last node. Now threads of left link fields of the first node and right
link fields of the last node will point to the header node.

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