Data Structures
Binary Search Trees
Today’s Outline
• Basic concepts of BST
• BST operations
Basic Concept’s
• A binary search tree (BST) is a binary
tree with the following properties:
– All items in the left subtree are less than
the root.
– All items in the right subtree are greater
than or equal to the root.
– Each subtree is itself a binary search tree.
BST
BST
Invalid BST
BST Operations
• Traversals:
– BST traversal includes the pre-order, in-
order and post-order traversal.
– Pre-order and post-order traversal in BST
usually do not produce useful results.
– In-order traversal however produces a
sequential list.
Traverse the BST
BST Operations
• Searches
– Find the smallest node
• The node with the smallest value is the far-left
node in the tree.
• Simply follow the left branches until you get to a
leaf.
– Find the largest node
• Start at the tree root and follow the right
branches to the far-right node in the tree.
BST Operations
• Searches
• Find a requested node
(BST search):
– First compare node with
the root node
– If node is less than root
then the target node
would be in the left sub-
tree, search through the
left sub-tree.
– If it is greater then search
the right sub-tree
BST Operations
• Insertion
– The insert node function adds data to a BST.
– To insert data all you need to do is to follow the
branches to an empty subtree and then insert the
new node.
– In other words, all inserts take place at a leaf or at
a leaflike node—a node that has only one null
subtree.
– If the BST is empty the new node becomes the
root.
BST Operations
• Insertion: Non-empty BST
BST Operation
• Insertion: Empty BST
– Draw a binary search tree by inserting the
following numbers from left to right.
• 11, 6, 8, 19, 4, 10, 5, 17, 43, 49, 31
• 14, 23, 7, 10, 33, 56, 80, 66, 70
• 7, 10, 14, 23, 33, 56, 66, 70, 80
Insertion
• 11, 6, 8, 19, 4, 10, 5, 17, 43, 49, 31
11
6 19
4 43
8 17
5 31
10
Insertion
• 14, 23, 7, 10, 33, 56, 80, 66, 70
14
23
7
33
10
56
80
66
70
BST Operation
• Deletion
– To delete a node from a binary search tree, we
must first locate it.
– There are four possible cases when we delete a
node:
• The node to be deleted has no children. In this case, all
we need to do is delete the node.
• The node to be deleted has only a right subtree. We
delete the node and attach the right subtree to the
deleted node’s parent.
• The node to be deleted has only a left subtree. We
delete the node and attach the left subtree to the deleted
node’s parent.
BST Operation
• Deletion
– The node to be deleted has two subtrees.
• Find the largest node in the deleted node’s left
subtree and move its data to replace the
deleted node’s data.
• Or find the smallest node on the deleted node’s
right subtree and move its data to replace the
deleted node’s data.
BST Operation
• Deletion: Example
deletion
• Delete node 8
• Delete11
• Delete 31 11
17
6 19
4 43
8
10 17
5 31
10
End of Lecture
