B Tree

Module 2
 Motivation for B-Trees
• Index structures for large datasets cannot be stored in main
memory
• Storing it on disk requires different approach to efficiency.
• M-way trees are mainly used in external searching, i.e. in
situations where data is to be retreived from secondary
storage like disk files.
• Assuming that a disk spins at 3600 RPM, one revolution
occurs in 1/60 of a second, or 16.7ms
• Crudely speaking, one disk access takes about the same time
as 200,000 instructions
 Motivation (cont.)
• Assume that we use an AVL tree to store about 20 million
records
• We end up with a very deep binary tree with lots of different
disk accesses; log2 20,000,000 is about 24, so this takes about
0.2 seconds
• We know we can’t improve on the log n lower bound on
search for a binary tree
• But, the solution is to use more branches and thus reduce the
height of the tree!
– As branching increases, depth decreases
 Motivation (cont.)
• As we know, access time for secondary storage is much higher
than that of primary storage, and thus our aim is to minimize
the number of file accesses.
• To do so, the height of the tree is reduced by forming an m-
way tree. Lesser the height, more efficient is the external
search.
• Although the height of an M-way tree is less, there is a chance
for further reduction which can be achieved by balancing the
tree.
• That's where B tree comes in.
• A B Tree (height Balanced m-way search Tree) is a special type
of M-way tree which balances itself.
 Definition of a B-tree
• A B-tree of order m is an m-way tree (i.e., a tree
where each node may have up to m children) in
which:
1. the number of keys in each non-leaf node is one less
than the number of its children and these keys
partition the keys in the children in the fashion of a
search tree
2. all leaves are on the same level
3. all non-leaf nodes (except the root) have at least
m/2 children
4. the root is either a leaf node, or it has from two to m
children
5. a leaf node contains no more than m – 1 keys
 Definition of a B-tree
• B tree of order m have following properties.
• Every node have maximum m children.
• Minimum children
leaf=0
root=2
internal node=(m/2)
• Every node have maximum m-1 keys
• Minimum Keys
root=1
all other nodes=(m/2)-1
B-Tree: Example
 Constructing a B-tree
• Suppose we start with an empty B-tree and keys arrive in the
following order:
1 12 8 2 25 6 14 28 17 7 52 16 48 68 3 26 29 53 55
45
• We want to construct a B-tree of order 5
• The first four items go into the root:

1 2 8 12
• To put the fifth item in the root would violate condition 5
• Therefore, when 25 arrives, pick the middle key to make a
new root
 Constructing a B-tree (contd.)

1 2 12 25

6, 14, 28 get added to the leaf nodes:

8

1 2 6 12 14 25 28
 Constructing a B-tree (contd.)
Adding 17 to the right leaf node would over-fill it, so we take the
middle key, promote it (to the root) and split the leaf
8 17

1 2 6 12 14 25 28

7, 52, 16, 48 get added to the leaf nodes

8 17

1 2 6 7 12 14 16 25 28 48 52
 Constructing a B-tree (contd.)
Adding 68 causes us to split the right most leaf, promoting 48 to
the root, and adding 3 causes us to split the left most leaf,
promoting 3 to the root; 26, 29, 53, 55 then go into the leaves
3 8 17 48

1 2 6 7 12 14 16 25 26 28 29 52 53 55 68

Adding 45 causes a split of 25 26 28 29

and promoting 28 to the root then causes the root to split

 Constructing a B-tree (contd.)

17

3 8 28 48

1 2 6 7 12 14 16 25 26 29 45 52 53 55 68
 Inserting into a B-Tree
• Attempt to insert the new key into a leaf
• If this would result in that leaf becoming too big,
split the leaf into two, promoting the middle key
to the leaf’s parent
• If this would result in the parent becoming too
big, split the parent into two, promoting the
middle key
• This strategy might have to be repeated all the
way to the top
• If necessary, the root is split in two and the
middle key is promoted to a new root, making
the tree one level higher
 Exercise in Inserting a B-Tree
• Insert the following keys to a 5-way B-tree:
• 3, 7, 9, 23, 45, 1, 5, 14, 25, 24, 13, 11, 8, 19, 4, 31, 35, 56
 Removal from a B-tree
• During insertion, the key always goes into a leaf. For deletion
we wish to remove from a leaf. There are three possible ways
we can do this:
– 1 - If the key is already in a leaf node, and removing it
doesn’t cause that leaf node to have too few keys, then
simply remove the key to be deleted.
– 2 - If the key is not in a leaf then it is guaranteed (by the
nature of a B-tree) that its predecessor or successor will be
in a leaf -- in this case we can delete the key and promote
the predecessor or successor key to the non-leaf deleted
key’s position.
 Removal from a B-tree (2)
• If (1) or (2) lead to a leaf node containing less than the
minimum number of keys then we have to look at the siblings
immediately adjacent to the leaf in question:
– 3: if one of them has more than the min. number of keys
then we can promote one of its keys to the parent and
take the parent key into our lacking leaf
– 4: if neither of them has more than the min. number of
keys then the lacking leaf and one of its neighbours can be
combined with their shared parent (the opposite of
promoting a key) and the new leaf will have the correct
number of keys; if this step leave the parent with too few
keys then we repeat the process up to the root itself, if
required
Deletion Flowchart
 Type #1: Simple leaf deletion

Assuming a 5-way
B-Tree, as before... 12 29 52

2 7 9 15 22 31 43 56 69 72

Delete 2: Since there are enough

keys in the node, just delete it
Type #2: Simple non-leaf deletion

12 29 56
52 Delete 52

7 9 15 22 31 43 56 69 72

Borrow the predecessor

or (in this case) successor
Type #4: Too few keys in node and its
siblings

12 29 56

Join back together

7 9 15 22 31 43 69 72
Too few keys!
Delete 72
Type #4: Too few keys in node & its
siblings

12 29

7 9 15 22 31 43 56 69
Type #3: Enough siblings

12 29
Demote root key and
promote leaf key

7 9 15 22 31 43 56 69

Delete 22
Type #3: Enough siblings

12 31

7 9 15 29 43 56 69
 Exercise in Removal from a B-Tree
• Given 5-way B-tree created by these data:
3, 7, 9, 23, 45, 1, 5, 14, 25, 24, 13, 11, 8, 19, 4, 31, 35, 56
• Add these further keys: 2, 6,12
• Delete these keys: 4, 5, 7, 3, 14
 Analysis of B-Trees
• Max. no. of items in a B-tree of order m and height h:
root m–1
level 1 m(m – 1)
level 2 m2(m – 1)
. . .
level h mh(m – 1)
• So, the total number of items is
(1 + m + m2 + m3 + … + mh)(m – 1) =
[(mh+1 – 1)/ (m – 1)] (m – 1) = mh+1 – 1
• When m = 5 and h = 2 this gives 53 – 1 = 124
 Comparing Trees
• Binary trees
– Can become unbalanced and lose their good time
complexity (big O)
– AVL trees are strict binary trees that overcome the
balance problem
– Heaps remain balanced but only prioritise (not order)
the keys
• Multi-way trees
– B-Trees can be m-way, they can have any (odd)
number of children
– One B-Tree, the 2-3 (or 3-way) B-Tree, approximates a
permanently balanced binary tree, exchanging the
AVL tree’s balancing operations for insertion and
(more complex) deletion operations