Data Structures Using C++ (B18EC4062) 2020

Non-Linear Data Structures – Trees

Introduction:

 A tree is a non-linear hierarchical (arranged in order of rank) data structure that is a

collection of nodes connected by means of edges which are either directed or undirected.
 Elements are stored non-sequentially.
 One of the nodes is called the Root node (topmost node) and the rest of the nodes are called
the child nodes or leaf nodes of the root node.
 Each node can have many children but only one parent node.
 A sample basic tree is as shown below:

In the above diagram, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,H, I, J are all nodes.

Important Terminologies related to Trees:

 Edges: Link between two nodes. Each node is connected to the next node using edges. In the
above diagram, A node is connected to node B through a right edge and A node is connected
to node C is connected through left edge.
 Root Node: Topmost node of a tree is the root node. Each tree will have only one root node.
In above diagram Node A is the Root Node.
 Parent Node: Parent node is a node which is not the Root node. Parent node has an edge
upwards towards the parents. Parent node has a child node.
Node B is parent to Nodes D and E, Node C is parent to Nodes F and G, Node D is parent to
Node H and I, Node E is parent to Node J.
 Child Node: The node below a parent node which has an edge downwards is called the Child
node.
Node D and E are child node of Parent B, Node F and G are child nodes of Parent C, Nodes H
and I are child nodes of Parent D, J node is child node of Parent E.
 Leaf Node: Node which does not have any child nodes is called leaf node.
Nodes F, G, H, I and J are leaf nodes.

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 Data Structures Using C++ (B18EC4062) 2020
 Subtree: Descendants of a node when the root is not NULL. A tree usually consists of a root
node and one or more subtrees.
In the figure above, (B-D, B-E), (C-F, C-G) and (D-H, D-I) are subtrees.
 Ancestor Node: Previous nodes on path from Root node to the current node.
In the above figure, Nodes A, B, and D are Ancestor Nodes of Node H.
 Key: Value of a node represents the key.
 Level: Represents the generation of the node. Root Node is always at level 0, its next child is
at level 1 and grandchild is at level 2.
 Traversing: Passing through nodes in a specific order.
 Path: Sequence of consecutive edges. In the above figure, the path to E is A->B->E.
 Degree: Degree of a node indicates the number of children a node has.
In figure above, the degree of node B is 2 and Degree of node E is 1.
 Height of a Node: is the number of edges on the longest path between that target node and
a leaf. Each node has a height associated but leaf node has no height associated.
In the above figure: the height of the node A is: 3 ( A->B->D->H or I) or (A->B->E->J)
 Depth of a Node: is the number of edges between the target node and the root.
In the figure above, Depth of Node D is 2 and Depth of Node I is 3.

Need for Tree Data Structure:

In other linear data structures like arrays, queues, stacks and linked list data is store sequentially. In
order to perform any operation in a linear data structure the time complexity increases with increase
in data size. Different tree data structures allow quicker and easier access to the data as it is a non-
linear data structure. Trees data structure represents the memory arrangement of a computer
system.

Types Of Trees:

Below is the list of Tree Data Structures:

a) General Tree:

b) Binary Tree.

c) Binary Search Tree

d) AVL Tree.

e) Red-Black Tree.

f) N-ary T

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