In computer science, a binary tree is a tree data structure in which each node has at most two child nodes, usually distinguished as "left" and "right". Nodes with children are parent nodes, and child nodes may contain references to their parents. Outside the tree, there is often a reference to the "root" node (the ancestor of all nodes), if it exists. Any node in the data structure can be reached by starting at root node and repeatedly following references to either the left or right child. A tree which does not have any node other than root node is called a null tree. In a binary tree a degree of every node is maximum two. A tree with n nodes has exactly n−1 branches or degree.
Binary trees are used to implement binary search trees and binary heaps.
Read more about Binary Tree: Definitions For Rooted Trees, Types of Binary Trees, Properties of Binary Trees, Common Operations, Type Theory, Definition in Graph Theory, Combinatorics
Famous quotes containing the word tree:
“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.”
—Bible: Hebrew Genesis 2:9-10.