Binary Tree Explained

A Binary Tree is a non-linear data structure that is used for searching and data organization. A binary tree is comprised of nodes. Each node being a data component, one a left child and the other the

A Binary Tree is a non-linear data structure that is used for searching and data organization. A binary tree is comprised of nodes. Each node being a data component, one a left child and the other the right child. Let us dive into the concepts related to trees and implement them into the Python programming language.

class Node:
    def __init__(self, data):
        self.data = data
        self.left = None
        self.right = None


class BinaryTree:
    def __init__(self):
        self.length = 0
        self.root = None

    def addNode(self, data):
        newNode = Node(data)
        if self.root == None:
            self.root = newNode
        else:
            # added = self.traverseList(self.root, newNode)
            # print(added)
            if not self.traverseList(self.root, newNode):
                print("value already stored {}".format(data))
                return
        self.length += 1

    def traverseList(self, curNode, newNode):
        if newNode.data == curNode.data:
            return False

        if newNode.data > curNode.data:
            if curNode.right == None:
                curNode.right = newNode
                return True
            else:
                return self.traverseList(curNode.right, newNode)

        else:
            if curNode.left == None:
                curNode.left = newNode
                return True
            else:
                return self.traverseList(curNode.left, newNode)

    def printTree(self):
        self.traversePrintTree(self.root)

    def traversePrintTree(self, curNode):
        print(curNode.data)
        if curNode.left != None:
            self.traversePrintTree(curNode.left)
        if curNode.right != None:
            self.traversePrintTree(curNode.right)



bT = BinaryTree()

# adding Nodes
bT.addNode(8)
bT.addNode(4)
bT.addNode(12)
bT.addNode(2)
bT.addNode(6)
bT.addNode(10)
bT.addNode(14)
bT.addNode(3)

print("\n")
# check correct length
print(bT.length)
print("\n")

# adding duplicate Nodes
bT.addNode(10)
bT.addNode(4)
bT.addNode(3)
print("\n")

# Display Nodes
bT.printTree()

Note: Prerequisites – Make sure you have basic Python knowledge before diving into this article. It also might be a good idea to check out some linear data structures. (links are given above)

Table of Contents

Binary Trees: Introduction

A binary tree node consists of the following components:

  • Data

  • Pointer to Left Child

  • Pointer to Right Child

Below are some key terminologies related to a binary tree.

  • Node – The most elementary unit of a binary tree.

  • Root – The root of a binary is the topmost element. There is only one root in a binary tree.

  • Leaf – The leaves of a binary tree are the nodes which have no children.

  • Level – The level is the generation of the respective node. The root has level 0, the children of the root node is at level 1, the grandchildren of the root node is at level 2 and so on.

  • Parent – The parent of a node is the node that is one level upward of the node.

  • Child – The children of a node are the nodes that are one level downward of the node.

Applications of Binary Trees

A binary tree is a hierarchical data structure, a file system that is organized in the form of a tree. Trees can be used for efficient searching, when the elements are organized with some order. Some examples include:

  • The HTML/XML Document Object Model is organized in the form of a tree.

  • Abstract Syntax Trees and Parse Trees are constructed by a compiler as a part of compilation.

  • Trees are also used to efficiently index databases.

Implementing a Binary Tree

Initialize a Node Class

Let us first define the Node class.

# The Node Class defines the structure of a Node
class Node:
    # Initialize the attributes of Node
    def __init__(self, data):
        self.left = None # Left Child
        self.right = None # Right Child
        self.data = data # Node Data

Once we have defined the Node class, we can initialize our Binary Tree:

class Node:
    def __init__(self, data):
        self.left = None
        self.right = None
        self.data = data

root = Node(10) # Instantiating the Tree
# Tree Structure
#        10
#      /    \
#     None   None

root.left = Node(34) # Setting the left child of the root to 34
root.right = Node(89) # Setting the right child of the root to 89

# Tree Structure
#          10
#        /    \
#       34      89
#     /    \  /    \
#  None  None None None

Traversals

Since a binary tree is a non-linear data structure, there is more than one way to traverse through the tree data. Let’s look at the various types of traversals in a binary tree, including inorder traversal, preorder traversal, and postorder traversal.

Inorder Traversal

In an inorder traversal, the left child is visited first, followed by the parent node, then followed by the right child.

def inorder(node):
    if node:
        # Recursively call inorder on the left subtree until it reaches a leaf node
        inorder(node.left)

        # Once we reach a leaf, we print the data
        print(node.data)

        # Now, since the left subtree and the root has been printed, call inorder on right subtree recursively until we reach a leaf node.
        inorder(node.right)

# For the tree,
#          10
#        /    \
#       34      89
#     /    \  /    \
#  20     45  56    54

# Inorder traversal: 20 34 45 10 56 89 54

Preorder Traversal

In a preorder traversal, the root node is visited first, followed by the left child, then the right child.

def preorder(node):
    if node:
        # Print the value of the root node first
        print(node.data)

        # Recursively call preorder on the left subtree until we reach a leaf node.
        preorder(node.left)

        # Recursively call preorder on the right subtree until we reach a leaf node.
        preorder(node.right)

# For the tree,
#          10
#        /    \
#       34      89
#     /    \  /    \
#  20     45  56    54

# Preorder traversal: 10 34 20 45 89 56 54

Postorder Traversal

In a postorder traversal, the left child is visited first, followed by the right child, then the root node.

def postorder(node):
    if node:
        # Recursively call postorder on the left subtree until we reach a leaf node.
        postorder(node.left)

        # Recursively call postorder on the right subtree until we reach a leaf node.
        postorder(node.right)

        # Print the value of the root node
        print(node.data)

# For the tree,
#          10
#        /    \
#       34      89
#     /    \  /    \
#  20     45  56    54

# Postorder traversal: 20 45 34 56 54 89 10

Practice Binary Trees

Once you have understood the core concepts of a binary tree, practice the problem sets given below to strengthen and test your knowledge on trees.

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