11 Red black trees

11.1 Preliminaries

A BST that guarantees that


 

Definition: A BST is a red-black tree if it satisfies the following properties.

 Every node is either red or black.

 Every leaf (external node) is black.

 If a node is red, then both of its children are black.

 Every path from a node to a descendant external node contains the same number of black
nodes.

Notation:   is the black height of a node  = number of black nodes on any path from (but not

including) to an external node.
Example: Fig 13.1

Lemma 3 A red black tree with

 internal nodes has height at most   
 .
Proof

1. ST subtree at node
 contains at least !#"%$&  internal nodes.

By induction on height of the subtree rooted at :


(')*
,+.- leaf
-  /
0+1- 2/& 3
0+ internal nodes.

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 Consider an internal node
 (with black height   ). Its children have height   &  or
  . Assume   &  to be conservative.

From the induction hypothesis, the number of nodes in the subtree rooted at is
    #"%$5476 &
89:;
 !<"%$ &  .
2. let be the height of the tree.
 =>>'?A@CB 
D@  %EGF & 
- IH   
7J

11.2 Rotations

This is a fundamental operation used to maintain the red black property during insertion/deletion.
Look at Figs 13.2 and 13.3 very carefully.

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11.3 RB INSERT(KMLN )

TREE INSERT(T,x)
 O red
color( )

while ( is not the root and P
 is red) do
if (P
*
.
QR8ST') P  P ?U )
V
W ’s uncle
if (color(V ) == red)
Case 1.
else
if (x == right(p(x))
Case 2
Case 3
else
three symmetric cases.
endwhile
color(root) O black
Note: the cases are not mutually exclusive. Look at Fig 13.4 very carefully to understand the three
cases.
Case 1: Preconditions

1. P  is red.
2. P P
 ? must be black (why?)
3. V
P  P U ’s other child is red.
Case 1: Steps

1. Make P  and V black.

2. Make P P
 ? red.
3. set
X
P  P U

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Case 2: Preconditions

1. P   is red.
2. V , P P
 ? are black.

3. is right child of P

4. P  is left child of P  P 
Case 2: Steps

1. Set
Y
P   ..
2. Do a LEFT ROTATE( )

3. So what does this do? Ans:
 becomes left child of P  and P  becomes a left child of
P  P ? .
Case 3: Preconditions

1. V is black

2.
 is P  ’s left child.
3. P
 is P  P ? ’s left child.
Case 3: Steps

1. Make P  black.

2. Make P P
  red.
3. RIGHT ROTATE( P  P U )

11.4 RB DELETE
 skip

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