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Trees Terminology

This document introduces tree data structures and key terminology used to describe them. It defines a tree as a non-linear data structure that organizes data in a hierarchical structure. Each element in a tree is called a node, and nodes are connected by edges. Key terminology includes root, parent, child, sibling, leaf, internal, degree, level, height, depth, and path. The document provides concise definitions for each of these tree terminology terms.

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50 views

Trees Terminology

This document introduces tree data structures and key terminology used to describe them. It defines a tree as a non-linear data structure that organizes data in a hierarchical structure. Each element in a tree is called a node, and nodes are connected by edges. Key terminology includes root, parent, child, sibling, leaf, internal, degree, level, height, depth, and path. The document provides concise definitions for each of these tree terminology terms.

Uploaded by

Avinash Alla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Data Structures – 19SC1202 - CO3

Tree Terminologies – BST – AVL Tree – Splay Tree– Red Black Tree – B Tree
– Heap Sort – Expression tree

Introduction to Trees and its Terminologies

In linear data structure data is organized in sequential order and in non-linear data structure data is
organized in random order. Tree is a very popular non-linear data structure used in wide range of applications. A
tree data structure can be defined as follows...
Tree is a non-linear data structure which organizes data in hierarchical structure.
In tree data structure, every individual element is called as Node. Node in a tree data structure stores the
actual data of that particular element and link to next element in hierarchical structure
In a tree data structure, if we have N number of nodes then we can have a

maximum of N-1 number of links(Edges).


Terminology
In a tree data structure, we use the following terminology...

1. Root
In a tree data structure, the first node is called as Root Node. Every tree must have root node. We can say that
root node is the origin of tree data structure. In any tree, there must be only one root node. We never have
multiple root nodes in a tree.
The Parent node at level 0 is called as Root Node.
2. Edge
In a tree data structure, the connecting link between any two nodes is called as EDGE. In a tree with 'N' number
of nodes there will be a maximum of 'N-1' number of edges.

3. Parent
In a tree data structure, the node which is predecessor of any node is called as PARENT NODE. In simple words,
the node which has edge(branch) from it to any other node is called as parent node. Parent node can also be
defined as "The node which has child / children".

4. Child

In a tree data structure, the node which is descendant(succesor) of any node is called as
CHILD Node. In simple words, the node which has a link from its parent node is called as child node. In a tree,
any parent node can have any number of child nodes. In a tree, all the nodes except root are child nodes.
5. Siblings
In a tree data structure, nodes which belong to same Parent are called as SIBLINGS. In simple words, the nodes
with same parent are called as Sibling nodes.

6. Leaf
In a tree data structure, the node which does not have a child is called as LEAF Node. In simple words, a leaf
is a node with no child.

The child node with degree 0 is called as Leaf Node.

7. Internal Nodes

In a tree data structure, the node which has atleast one child is called as INTERNAL Node. In simple words,
an internal node is a node with atleast one child.
8. Degree
In a tree data structure, the total number of children of a node is called as DEGREE of that Node. In simple
words, the Degree of a node is total number of children it has. The highest degree of a node among all the nodes
in a tree is called as 'Degree of Tree'

9. Level

In a tree data structure, the root node is said to be at Level 0 and the children of root node are at Level 1 and the
children of the nodes which are at Level 1 will be at Level 2 and so on... In simple words, in a tree 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 (Step).
10. Height

In a tree data structure, the total number of edges from leaf node to a particular node in the longest path is called
as HEIGHT of that Node. In a tree, height of the root node is said to be height of the tree. In a tree, height of
all leaf nodes is '0'.

11. Depth

In a tree data structure, the total number of egdes from root node to a particular node is called as DEPTH of that
Node. In a tree, the total number of edges from root node to a leaf node in the longest path is said to be Depth of
the tree. In simple words, the highest depth of any leaf node in a tree is said to be depth of that tree. In a tree,
depth of the root node is '0'.
12. Path
In a tree data structure, the sequence of Nodes and Edges from one node to another node is called
as PATH between that two Nodes. Length of a Path is total number of nodes in that path. In
below example the path A - B - E - J has length 4.

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