Introduction to Trees
Terms
Degree
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The maximum number of children that a node in a tree can have.
Binary Search
-
A search for a particular item from an ordered set. The process is as
follows: 1. check the middle element in the set. 2. If the desired element
precedes the middle element, then reduce the set to the first half of the
original data set and proceed with another binary search. Similarly, if
the desired element is after the middle element, do a binary search on
the second half of the set. Continue until you either find the desired
element or there is nothing left to search.
Binary Search Trees
-
A tree where all of the nodes in a left subtree precede the root node in
a given ordering scheme, all the nodes in the right subtree come after the
root node in the same scheme, and where both the left and the right subtrees
are also binary search trees.
Node
-
Any element of a tree. Contains some data and potentially has children,
which are other nodes in the tree.
Descendant
-
Any node that can be reached from the current node by following the
children branches.
Root
-
The node from which all other nodes in the tree descend.
Child
-
In a tree, nodes can point to the roots of subtrees. The roots of the
subtrees below a given node are the children of that node.
Leaf
-
A node in a tree that has no children.
Algorithm
-
A process, or a series of steps, for accomplishing a given task.
Recursive
-
Something that is defined in terms of itself.
