Chapter 8

Tree
Dr. Ameera Jaradat
[email protected]

Data Structures and Algorithms in Python

© 2013 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser
 Linear vs nonlinear structure
• So far we have seen linear structures
– The data elements are sequentially connected in a Single level.
– lists, vectors, arrays, stacks, queues.

• Non-linear structure:
– Data elements are arranged in Multiple levels, there exists a
relationship between the data elements.
– Trees (hierarchical structure), Graph.
 Tree Terminology
• Tree data structure is a collection of
data (Node) which is organized in
Edge
hierarchical structure recursively.
A
node
• Edge : the connecting link between
any two nodes. B C

D E F G H
• Tree is a connected Graph with no
cycles.
• In a tree, if we have N number of
nodes then we must have N - 1 I J E
number of links.
A Tree with 10 nodes and 9 edges
 Root : top element
Root
• Every tree must have
only one root node. A

B C
• the root node is the
origin of the tree D E F G H
data structure.
I J E
 Child
• CHILD Node: the node
which is descendant of
any node is called as . A
• In a tree, any parent
node can have any C
B
number of child nodes.
• In a tree, all the nodes
except root are child D E F G H
nodes.
I J E
• Each element has 0 or
more children
 Parent
• PARENT NODE: the
node which is a A
predecessor of any
node. B C
• A node which has a
child / children. D E F G H
• Also internal nodes
I J E
• Except the root, each
element has a parent
 Leaf
A
• LEAF Node: the
node which does B C

not have a child.

D E F G H

• External node.
I J K
 Siblings
A
• SIBLINGS : nodes
which belong to B C
same Parent.
D E F G H

I J E
 Degree
A

• Node DEGREE : the C

B
total number of
children of a node
D E F G H

• Degree of Tree:The
I J K
highest degree of a
node among all the
Degree of A = 2
nodes in a tree. Degree of B = 3
Degree of H = 0
Degree of Tree = 3
 Level
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
– root node is at Level 0
– children of root are at Level 1
– the children of the nodes which are at Level 1 will be at Level 2
and so on.

A Level 0

B C Level 1

G H
D E F Level 2

I J K Level 3
 Path
• PATH between that two Nodes: the sequence of Nodes
and Edges from one node to another
• Length of a Path is total number of edges in that path.

Path length = 3

Path length = 2
 HEIGHT
• Height of Node X: the longest path (number of edges) from leaf

node to node X.

• Height of the tree = Height of Root .

• height of all leaf nodes = 0.

 Depth
• Depth of Node X: the total number of edges (path length) from the

root node to node X.

• Depth of the tree: longest path from root node to a leaf node in the

Tree.

• depth of the root node is '0'.

Depth = Level

Height of the tree

= Height of Root
= Depth of Tree
= number of last level
 SUB TREE
• each child from a node forms a subtree recursively.
 Ancestors
Ancestor node of a node is any node in the path from that node
to the root node (including the root node).

Ancestor of B is {A} B C

Ancestor of E is {B, A} D E F G H

I J K Ancestor of K is {G,C,A}
 Descendants
Descendants of a node are all the nodes in the subtree rooted at that node.

A
Descendants of B
{D,E,F,I,J}
Descendants of C
B C {G,H,K}

Descendants of D {} E F G H
D
Descendants of E
{I,J}
I J K Descendants of G
{K}
 Forest

• A forest is a set of disjoint trees.

Thanks for listening

Next :
BINARY TREE