Tree Data Structure | Tree Terminology

Data Structures
Tree Data Structure-

Tree data structure may be defined as-

Tree is a non-linear data structure which organizes data in a hierarchical structure and this is a recursive
definition.
OR
A tree is a connected graph without any circuits.
OR
If in a graph, there is one and only one path between every pair of vertices, then graph is called as a tree.

Example-

Properties-
 The important properties of tree data structure are-
 There is one and only one path between every pair of vertices in a tree.
 A tree with n vertices has exactly (n-1) edges.
 A graph is a tree if and only if it is minimally connected.
 Any connected graph with n vertices and (n-1) edges is a tree.

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Tree Terminology-

The important terms related to tree data structure are-

1. Root-

 The first node from where the tree originates is called as a root node.
 In any tree, there must be only one root node.
 We can never have multiple root nodes in a tree data structure.

Example-

Here, node A is the only root node.

2. Edge-

 The connecting link between any two nodes is called as an edge.

 In a tree with n number of nodes, there are exactly (n-1) number of edges.

Example-
 3. Parent-

 The node which has a branch from it to any other node is called as a parent node.
 In other words, the node which has one or more children is called as a parent node.
 In a tree, a parent node can have any number of child nodes.

Example-
 Here,
 Node A is the parent of nodes B and C
 Node B is the parent of nodes D, E and F
 Node C is the parent of nodes G and H
 Node E is the parent of nodes I and J
 Node G is the parent of node K

4. Child-

 The node which is a descendant of some node is called as a child node.

 All the nodes except root node are child nodes.

Example-
 Here,
 Nodes B and C are the children of node A
 Nodes D, E and F are the children of node B
 Nodes G and H are the children of node C
 Nodes I and J are the children of node E
 Node K is the child of node G

5. Siblings-

 Nodes which belong to the same parent are called as siblings.

 In other words, nodes with the same parent are sibling nodes.

Example-
 Here,
 Nodes B and C are siblings
 Nodes D, E and F are siblings
 Nodes G and H are siblings
 Nodes I and J are siblings

6. Degree-

 Degree of a node is the total number of children of that node.

 Degree of a tree is the highest degree of a node among all the nodes in the tree.

Example-
 Here,
 Degree of node A = 2
 Degree of node B = 3
 Degree of node C = 2
 Degree of node D = 0
 Degree of node E = 2
 Degree of node F = 0
 Degree of node G = 1
 Degree of node H = 0
 Degree of node I = 0
 Degree of node J = 0
 Degree of node K = 0

7. Internal Node-

 The node which has at least one child is called as an internal node.
 Internal nodes are also called as non-terminal nodes.
 Every non-leaf node is an internal node.

Example-
 Here, nodes A, B, C, E and G are internal nodes.

8. Leaf Node-

 The node which does not have any child is called as a leaf node.
 Leaf nodes are also called as external nodes or terminal nodes.

Example-
 Here, nodes D, I, J, F, K and H are leaf nodes.

9. Level-

 In a tree, each step from top to bottom is called as level of a tree.

 The level count starts with 0 and increments by 1 at each level or step.

Example-
 10. Height-

 Total number of edges that lies on the longest path from any leaf node to a particular
node is called as height of that node.
 Height of a tree is the height of root node.
 Height of all leaf nodes = 0

Example-
 Here,
 Height of node A = 3
 Height of node B = 2
 Height of node C = 2
 Height of node D = 0
 Height of node E = 1
 Height of node F = 0
 Height of node G = 1
 Height of node H = 0
 Height of node I = 0
 Height of node J = 0
 Height of node K = 0

11. Depth-

 Total number of edges from root node to a particular node is called as depth of that
node.
 Depth of a tree is the total number of edges from root node to a leaf node in the
longest path.
 Depth of the root node = 0
 The terms “level” and “depth” are used interchangeably.

Example-
 Here,
 Depth of node A = 0
 Depth of node B = 1
 Depth of node C = 1
 Depth of node D = 2
 Depth of node E = 2
 Depth of node F = 2
 Depth of node G = 2
 Depth of node H = 2
 Depth of node I = 3
 Depth of node J = 3
 Depth of node K = 3

12. Subtree-

 In a tree, each child from a node forms a subtree recursively.

 Every child node forms a subtree on its parent node.

Example-
13. Forest-

A forest is a set of disjoint trees.

Example-

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