Trees

7.1 Introduction

A (free) tree T is
 A simple graph
such that for
every pair of
vertices v and w
 there is a unique
path from v to w
Rooted tree

A rooted tree is a tree

where one of its vertices is
designated the root
Level of a vertex and tree height
Let T be a rooted tree:
 The level l(v) of a vertex v is
the length of the simple path
from v to the root of the tree
 The height h of a rooted tree T
is the maximum of all level
numbers of its vertices:
h = max { l(v) }
v  V(T)

 Example:
 the tree on the right has height 3
Organizational charts
 Huffman codes

 On the left tree the word rate is encoded

001 000 011 100
 On the right tree, the same word rate is encoded
11 000 001 10
 7.2 Terminology
 Parent
 Ancestor
 Child
 Descendant
 Siblings
 Terminal vertices
 Internal vertices
 Subtrees
Internal and external vertices

 An internal vertex is a
vertex that has at least one
child
 A terminal vertex is a
vertex that has no children
 The tree in the example
has 4 internal vertices and
4 terminal vertices
 Subtrees
A subtree of a tree T is a tree T' such that
 V(T')  V(T) and
 E(T')  E(T)
 Characterization of trees
Theorem 7.2.3
If T is a graph with n vertices, the following are
equivalent:
a) T is a tree
b) T is connected and acyclic
 (“acyclic” = having no cycles)
c) T is connected and has n-1 edges
d) T is acyclic and has n-1 edges
 7.3 Spanning trees

Given a graph G, a tree T is a

spanning tree of G if:
 T is a subgraph of G

and
 T contains all the vertices of G
 Spanning tree search
 Breadth-first search
method

 Depth-first search
method (backtracking)
 7.4 Minimal spanning trees
Given a weighted graph G, a
minimum spanning tree is
 a spanning tree of G
 that has minimum “weight”
 1. Prim’s algorithm
 Step 0: Pick any vertex as a  Step 3: Repeat Step
starting vertex (call it a). T = {a}. 2, choosing the edge
 Step 1: Find the edge with of smallest weight
smallest weight incident to a. that does not form a
Add it to T Also include in T the cycle until all vertices
next vertex and call it b. are in T. The resulting
 Step 2: Find the edge of subgraph T is a
smallest weight incident to minimum spanning
either a or b. Include in T that tree.
edge and the next incident
vertex. Call that vertex c.
 2. Kruskal’s algorithm
 Step 1: Find the edge in  Step 3: Repeat Step 2 until
the graph with smallest you reach out to every vertex
weight (if there is more of the graph. The chosen
than one, pick one at edges form the desired
random). Mark it with any
given color, say red. minimum spanning tree.
 Step 2: Find the next
edge in the graph with
smallest weight that
doesn't close a cycle.
Color that edge and the
next incident vertex.
 7.5 Binary trees
A binary tree is a tree
where each vertex has
zero, one or two children
Full binary tree

A full binary tree is a

binary tree in which
each vertex has two
or no children.
Full binary tree
Theorem 7.5.4: If T is a full
binary tree with k internal
vertices, then
 T has k + 1 terminal vertices
and
 the total number of vertices
is 2k + 1.
 Example: there are k = 4 internal
vertices (a, b, c and f) and 5
terminal vertices (d, e, g, h and i) for
a total of 9 vertices.
 Height and terminal vertices
 Theorem 7.5.6: If a binary
tree of height h has t
terminal vertices, then lg t
< h, where lg is logarithm
base 2.
Equivalently, t < 2h.
 Example, h = 4 and t = 7.
Then: t = 7 < 16 = 24 = 2h
 A case of equality
 If all t terminal vertices of a full
binary tree T have the same
level h = height of T, then
t = 2 h.
 Example:
 The height is h = 3,
 and the number of terminal
vertices is t = 8
 t = 8 = 2 3 = 2h
 Alphabetical order
Alphabetical or lexicographic order is the order
of the dictionary:
a) start with an ordered set of symbols X =
{a,b,c, …}. X can be infinite or finite.
b) Let  = x1x2…xm and  = y1y2…yn be strings
over X. Then define  <  if
 x1 < y1
 or if xj= yj for all j, 1 < j < k, for some k such that
1 < k < min{m,n} and xj+1 < yj+1
 or if m < n and xj = yj for all j, 1 < j < m
Example of alphabetical order
 Let X = set of letters of the alphabet ordered
according to precedence, i.e.
a < b < c <… < x < y < z
 Let  = arboreal and  = arbiter.
 In this case,
 x1 = y1 = a,
 x2 = y2 = r
 x3 = y3 = b.
 So, we go the fourth letter: x4 = o and y4 = i.
 Since i < o we have that  < .
 Binary search trees
 Data are associated to  Example:
each vertex "Computers are an
important
 Order data alphabetically,
technological tool"
so that for each vertex v,
data to the left of v are
less than data in v
 and data to the right of v
are greater than data in v
 7.6 Tree Traversals
 1: Pre-order traversal

 2: In-order traversal
 More on tree traversals
 3: Post-order traversal

 4: Reverse post-order
traversal
 Arithmetic expressions
 Standard: infix form
(A+B)  C – D/ E
 Fully parenthesized form (in-
order & parenthesis):
(((A + B)  C) – (D / E))
 Postfix form (reverse Polish
notation):
A B + C D E / -
 Prefix form (Polish notation):

- + A B C / D E
 7.7 Decision trees
A decision tree is a binary tree containing an
algorithm to decide which course of action to
take.
 7.8 Isomorphism of trees
Given two trees T1 and T2
 T is isomorphic to T
1 2
 if we can find a one-to-one and
onto function f :T1 → T2
 that preserves the adjacency
relation
 i.e. if v, w  V(T1) and e = (v, w) is an
edge in T1, then e’ = (f(v), f(w)) is an
edge in T2.
 Isomorphism of rooted trees
Let T1 and T2 be rooted trees with roots r1 and r2,
respectively. T1 and T2 are isomorphic as
rooted trees if
 there is a one-to-one function f: V(T ) V(T )
1 2
such that vertices v and w are adjacent in T 1 if
and only if f(v) and f(w) are adjacent in T 2
 f(r1) = r2
Example:
 T and T are isomorphic
1 2

as rooted trees
 Isomorphism of binary trees
Let T1 and T2 be binary trees with roots r1 and r2,
respectively. T1 and T2 are isomorphic as binary
trees if
a) T1 and T2 are isomorphic as rooted trees
through an isomorphism f, and
b) v is a left (right) child in T1 if and only if f(v) is
a left (right) child in T2
 Note: This condition is more restrictive that isomorphism only as
rooted trees. Left children must be mapped onto left children
and right children must be mapped onto right children.
 Binary tree isomorphism
Example: the following two trees are
 isomorphic as rooted trees, but
 not isomorphic as binary trees
Summary of tree isomorphism
There are 3 kinds of tree isomorphism
 Isomorphism of trees
 Isomorphism of rooted trees
 (root goes to root)
 Isomorphism of binary trees
 (left children go to left children, right children go to
right children)
 Non-isomorphism of trees
 Many times it may be easier to determine
when two trees are not isomorphic rather than
to show their isomorphism.
 A tree isomorphism must respect certain
properties, such as
 the number of vertices
 the number of edges
 the degrees of corresponding vertices
 roots must go to roots
 position of children, etc.
Non-isomorphism of rooted trees

Theorem 7.8.7: There are four non-isomorphic

rooted trees with four vertices.
 The root is the top vertex in each tree.
 The degrees of the vertices appear in parenthesis
Non-isomorphic binary trees
Theorem 7.8.12:
 There are C(2n,n) / (n+1) non-isomorphic
binary trees with n vertices, n > 0, where
 C(2n,n) / (n+1) are the Catalan numbers C
n
 Catalan numbers (1)
 Eugene Charles Catalan
 Belgian mathematician, 1814-1894
 Catalan numbers can be computed using this
formula:
Cn = C(2n,n) / (n+1) for n > 0
 The first few Catalan numbers are:
n =0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Cn = 1 1 2 5 14 42 132 429 1430 4862 16796
Applications of Catalan numbers
 The number of ways in which a polygon with n+2 sides
can be cut into n triangles
 The number of ways in which parentheses can be
placed in a sequence of numbers, to be multiplied two
at a time
 The number of rooted trivalent trees with n+1 vertices
 The number of paths of length 2n through an n by n
grid that do not rise above the main diagonal
 The number of nonisomorphic binary trees with n
vertices
 Isomorphism of binary trees

There is an algorithm to test whether two binary

trees are isomorphic or not.
 If the number of vertices in the two trees is n,

 and if the number of comparisons needed is a ,

n
it can be shown that an < 3n + 2.
Theorem 7.8.14: The worst case of this algorithm
is (n).
 7.9 Game trees
Trees can be used to analyze all possible
move sequences in a game:
 Vertices are positions:
 a square represents one player and a circle
represents another player
 An edge represents a move
 A path represents a sequence of moves