Introduction to Trees

Study Guide

Terms

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Terms

Degree

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.

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