Binary Search Trees

 Definition
 Operations

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 Definition
The Binary Search Tree (or, simply Search Tree) is a
binary tree representation of a set of keys such that the
key at every node x is greater than or equal to the keys of
the sub-tree rooted at x.left, and less than or equal to the
keys at the sub-tree rooted at x.right.
The search tree T supports the following operations:
 find(T, k); // returns true, iff k belongs to T
 insert(T, k); //inserts k into T
 remove(T, k); //removes k from T
Note: The inorder traversal of a search tree results in a sorted
sequence of keys.

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 Example
50

20 70

10 40 60 80

15 30 65 75

Excluding key repetition, let us consider how to

implement the search tree operations using the following
triply linked representation for nodes:
PARENT
LLINK KEY RLINK
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 Searching
 find(T, k);
To determine whether the key k belongs to the search tree T, move
down in T, starting with T.root, as follows:
 If current node is null, then return false.
 Else, if current node is x, then:
- If k==x.key, then return true;
- Else, if k<x.key, then continue the search with x = x.llink;
- Else, if k>x.key, then continue search with x = x.rlink;
Example:
50 50
find(35)
70 70
20 20

10 40 60 80 10 40 60 80

15 30 65 75 15 30 65 75

false
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 Insertion
 insert(T, k);
To insert the key k into the search tree T, find the parent node y for k
(if any) by moving top-down in T, create a node x with k, and make x
either left or right child of y, depending on whether k<y.key.

Example:
50 50
insert(35)
70 70
20 20

10 40 60 80 10 40 60 80

y
15 30 65 75 15 30 65 75
x
35
Note: Newly inserted node is always added
as a leaf into a binary tree!

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 Removal
 remove(T, k);
To remove one of the occurrences of key k from the search tree T, find a
node x containing k (if any), then consider the following 3 cases:
Case 1. x does not have a left child.
- If there is a parent node z for x, then the link leading from z to x
redirect to x.rlink. Else, make T.root equal to x.rlink.
- If there is a right child y for x, then make y.parent equal to x.parent.
- Delete x.
Example:
50 50
z remove(10) z
70 70
20 20
x y
10 40 60 80 15 40 60 80

y 65 75 30 65 75
15 30

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 Removal – (2)
Case 2. x has a left child y but does not have a right child.
- If there is a parent node z for x, then the link leading from z to x
redirect to x.llink. Else, make T.root equal to x.llink.
- Make y.parent equal to x.parent.
- Delete x.

Example:
50 50
z remove(40) z
70 70
20 x 20 y
10 40 60 80 10 30 60 80

15 30 y 65 75 15 65 75

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 Removal – (3)
Case 3. x has two children.
- Find the leftmost node y in the subtree rooted at x.rlink.
- Make x.key equal to y.key and remove the node y (definitely
not having a left child) from T according to case 1.

Example: x
x
50 60
remove(50)
70 70
20 20
y
10 40 60 80 10 40 65 80

15 30 65 75 15 30 75

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 Additional Operations

 min (T);
Returns the minimal key that belongs to a non-empty search tree T

 max (T);
Returns the maximal key that belongs to a non-empty search tree T

 predecessor (T, k);

Assuming that k belongs to the search tree T, returns the key that
precedes k in T (if any).
 successor (T, k);
Assuming that k belongs to the search tree T, returns the key that
follows k in T (if any).

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 Complexity
If the height of the search tree T is h, then all the
operations considered above obviously have complexity
O(h).

Claim If there are n nodes in a search tree T, then

 The minimum value for h is lg n.
 The maximum value for h is n-1.
 The average value for h is c lg n,
for some constant c>1.

Corollary All operations over a search tree T with n

nodes are performed in the average time O(lg n).

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