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Implementing a Trie (Prefix Tree)

A Trie, also known as a prefix tree, is a tree-like data structure used for efficient retrieval of keys
in a dataset of strings. It excels at prefix-based search operations.
1) Data Structure Employed: Nested HashMaps (Dictionaries)
The core idea behind implementing a Trie node is to use a HashMap (or Dictionary) to store
pointers to its children. Each key in the HashMap represents a character, and the corresponding
value is a pointer to the child Trie node that starts with that character.
●​ TrieNode Structure: Each node in the Trie will typically have the following components:
○​ A HashMap (or Dictionary) called children to store references to child nodes. The
keys of this map will be characters.
○​ A boolean flag called isEndOfWord (or similar) to indicate whether the path from the
root to this node forms a complete word.
2) Algorithm Approach (Pseudocode)
Let's outline the algorithms for the fundamental Trie operations: insert, search, and startsWith.
a) Insert (word):
function insert(root, word):​
currentNode = root​
for each character 'char' in word:​
if 'char' is not a key in currentNode.children:​
create a new TrieNode and add it to currentNode.children with
key 'char'​
currentNode = currentNode.children['char']​
currentNode.isEndOfWord = true​

b) Search (word):
function search(root, word):​
currentNode = root​
for each character 'char' in word:​
if 'char' is not a key in currentNode.children:​
return false // Prefix not found​
currentNode = currentNode.children['char']​
return currentNode.isEndOfWord // True if the exact word exists​

c) startsWith (prefix):
function startsWith(root, prefix):​
currentNode = root​
for each character 'char' in prefix:​
if 'char' is not a key in currentNode.children:​
return false // Prefix not found​
currentNode = currentNode.children['char']​
return true // Prefix exists​

3) Planting Upper and Lower Bound of Your Preference of Algorithms

The algorithms for insert, search, and startsWith in a Trie have a time complexity that is directly
proportional to the length of the key (word or prefix). This is because, in the worst case, we
traverse down a path in the Trie corresponding to the length of the input string.
●​ Lower Bound (Best Case): For all three operations, if the word or prefix is empty, the
time complexity is \\mathcal{O}(1) as we only interact with the root node.
●​ Upper Bound (Worst Case): For all three operations, in the worst case, we traverse the
entire length of the word or prefix. If m is the length of the word (for insert and search) or
the length of the prefix (for startsWith), the time complexity is \\mathcal{O}(m).
Preference: Due to the nature of Trie operations being inherently tied to the length of the input
string, the \\mathcal{O}(m) time complexity for these operations is generally considered efficient
for prefix-based searching. We aim for algorithms that achieve this bound.
4) Calculating Time Complexity and Space Complexity
Time Complexity:
●​ Insert: \\mathcal{O}(m), where m is the length of the word being inserted. In the worst
case, we need to create m new nodes.
●​ Search: \\mathcal{O}(m), where m is the length of the word being searched. In the worst
case, we traverse m levels down the Trie.
●​ startsWith: \\mathcal{O}(p), where p is the length of the prefix being searched. In the
worst case, we traverse p levels down the Trie.
Space Complexity:
The space complexity of a Trie depends on the total number of characters and the length of the
words stored in it. In the worst case, if we have n words and the alphabet size is \\Sigma, and if
there are no common prefixes, each character of each word will correspond to a new node.
●​ Worst Case: \\mathcal{O}(N \\cdot m \\cdot |\\Sigma|), where N is the number of words, m
is the average length of the words, and |\\Sigma| is the size of the alphabet. This is
because each character in each word might lead to a new entry in the children HashMap
of a node.
●​ More Practical Consideration: If there are many common prefixes, the space complexity
will be significantly less than the worst case, as nodes will be shared among words with
the same prefix. However, in the worst-case scenario with no shared prefixes and a large
alphabet, the space usage can be substantial.
5) Alternative Solution
While the Trie is highly optimized for prefix-based searching, here are some alternative data
structures and approaches, along with their trade-offs:
●​ Using a Standard Set or Hash Set:
○​ Approach: Store all the words directly in a Set or Hash Set.
○​ Search: For search(word), the time complexity would be \\mathcal{O}(m) on
average for a Hash Set and \\mathcal{O}(m \\log n) in the worst case for a balanced
tree-based Set (where n is the number of words).
○​ startsWith: This operation is not efficient with a standard Set or Hash Set. You
would likely need to iterate through all the words and check if they start with the
given prefix, resulting in a time complexity of \\mathcal{O}(N \\cdot p) in the worst
case (where N is the number of words and p is the length of the prefix).
○​ Trade-offs: Simpler to implement for exact word search but very inefficient for
prefix-based searches.
●​ Sorted Array or List:
○​ Approach: Store all the words in a sorted array or list.
○​ Search: You can use binary search to check if a word exists in \\mathcal{O}(m \\log
n) time.
 ○​ startsWith: You could potentially use binary search to find the first word with the
given prefix and then iterate to find all words with that prefix. The time complexity
for startsWith could range from \\mathcal{O}(p \\log n + k) (where k is the number of
words with the prefix) to \\mathcal{O}(N \\cdot p) in the worst case.
○​ Trade-offs: Efficient for exact search (better than a simple Set in some cases) but
less efficient for startsWith compared to a Trie. Insertion can be \\mathcal{O}(n
\\cdot m) due to the need to maintain sorted order.
●​ Suffix Tree/Suffix Array:
○​ Approach: These are more complex tree-based or array-based data structures that
are highly efficient for substring searches and finding all occurrences of patterns
within a text.
○​ Relevance to Prefix Search: While powerful, they are generally overkill for simple
prefix-based searching. Building these structures can be more time-consuming and
they might consume more memory than a Trie for a simple set of words.
○​ Trade-offs: Excellent for more complex string matching tasks but not the most
straightforward or efficient for basic prefix searching.
Conclusion:
The Trie data structure, implemented using nested HashMaps, provides an efficient and elegant
solution for prefix-based search operations. Its time complexity for insert, search, and startsWith
is directly proportional to the length of the input string, making it well-suited for applications like
autocomplete, spell checking, and dictionary implementations. While alternative solutions exist,
they often involve trade-offs in terms of efficiency, especially for prefix-related queries.