Tree Concept in Data Structure

Name : Uday Shah - HOD (IT)
Contact No : 7600044051
E-Mail : rupareleducation@gmail.com
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Tree Terminology

In linear data structure, data is organized in sequential order and in non-linear data structure, data is organized in random order. Tree is a very popular data structure used in wide range of applications. A tree data structure can be defined as follows...

Tree is a non-linear data structure which organizes data in hierarchical structure and this is a recursive definition.

A tree data structure can also be defined as follows...

Tree data structure is a collection of data (Node) which is organized in hierarchical structure and this is a recursive definition

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.

In a tree data structure, if we have N number of nodes then we can have a maximum of N-1 number of links.

Example

Terminology

In a tree data structure, we use the following terminology...

1. Root

In a tree data structure, the first node is called as Root Node. Every tree must have root node. We can say that root node is the origin of 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 data structure, 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.

3. Parent

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

4. Child

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 same parent are called as Sibling nodes.

6. Leaf

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'

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 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 egdes 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.

Binary Tree

In a normal tree, every node can have any number of children. 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 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 as Binary Tree.

In a binary tree, every node can have either 0 children or 1 child or 2 children but not more than 2 children.

Example

There are different types of binary trees and they are...

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.

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 2^level number of nodes. For example at level 2 there must be 2² = 4 nodes and at level 3 there must be 2³ = 8 nodes.

 Binary Tree Traversals

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

Consider the following binary tree...

1. In - Order Traversal ( leftChild - root - rightChild )

In In-Order traversal, the root node is visited between 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 right child node. This in-order traversal is applicable for every root node of all subtrees in the tree. This is performed recursively for all nodes in the tree.

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 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. 

That means here we have visited in the order of A-B-D-I-J-F-C-G-K-H using Pre-Order Traversal.

2. 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 node is visited.

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