Course : COMP6048 – DATA STRUCTURE

Year : 2017

Introduction to Binary Search

Tree and Threaded Binary Tree
 Learning Outcomes
At the end of this session, student will be able to:
• Demonstrate construction process of binary search tree (LO1 &
LO3)

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 Sub Topics
Binary Search Tree:
- Binary Search Tree Concept
- Operations: Search, Insertion, Deletion
- Threaded Binary Tree Concept
- Advantages

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 Binary Search Tree Concept
Binary Search Tree (BST) is a binary tree with the following
properties:
– Every node has a key and no two nodes have the
same key (keys are unique).
– The keys in left sub tree are smaller than the key in
the root of the sub tree.
– The keys in right sub tree are larger than the key in
the root of the sub tree.
– The left and right sub trees are also binary search
tree (recursively).

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 Binary Search Tree Concept

Pay attention to the keys stored in each node

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 Binary Search Tree Operations
Binary Search Tree has the following basic operations:
– find(x) : find key x in the BST
– insert(x) : insert new key x into BST
– remove(x) : remove key x from BST

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 Operations: Search
• Because of the property of BST, finding/searching in BST is
easy.

• Let the key that we want to search is X.

– We begin at root
– If the root contains X then search terminates
successfully.
– If X is less than root’s key then search recursively on left
sub tree, otherwise search recursively on right sub tree.

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 Operations: Insertion
• Inserting into BST is done recursively.

• Let the new node’s key be X,

– Begin at root
– If X is less than node’s key then insert X into left
sub tree, otherwise insert X into right sub tree
– Repeat until we found an empty node to put X (X
will always be a new leaf)

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 Operations: Insertion – Example

Inserting new
key (35)

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Operations: Insertion – Example

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Operations: Insertion – Example

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Operations: Insertion – Example

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 Operations: Deletion
• There are 3 cases which should be considered:
– If the key is in a leaf, just delete that node
– If the key is in a node which has one child, delete
that node and connect its child to its parent
– If the key is in a node which has two children,
find the right most child of its left sub tree (node
P), replace its key with P’s key and remove P
recursively. (or alternately you can choose the left
most child of its right sub tree)

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 Operations: Deletion – Example

Deleting key (21)

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 Operations: Deletion – Example

Deleting key (21),

(continue)

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 Operations: Deletion – Example

Deleting key (37)

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 Operations: Deletion – Example

Deleting key (37),

(continue)

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 Operations: Deletion – Example

Deleting key (30)

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 Operations: Deletion – Example

Deleting key (30),

(continue)

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 Threaded Binary Tree Concept
• A threaded binary tree is same as that of a binary tree but
with a difference in storing NULL pointers.
• Binary Tree:

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 Threaded Binary Tree Concept
In the linked representation, a number of nodes contain a
NULL pointer either in their left or right fields or in both.

This space that is wasted in storing a NULL pointer can be

efficiently used to store some other useful peace of
information.

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 Threaded Binary Tree Concept
For example, the NULL entries can be replaced to store a
pointer to the in-order predecessor, or the in-order successor
of the node. These special pointers are called thread and
binary trees containing thread are called threaded trees.

In the linked representation of a threaded binary tree,

threads will be denoted using dotted lines

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 Threaded Binary Tree Concept
•  Binary Tree without threading

• Linked 
• representation of
• the binary tree

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 Threaded Binary Tree Concept
• In one way threading, a thread will appear either in the right field
or the left field of the node.
• A one way threaded tree is also called a single threaded tree.
• If the thread appears in the left field, then the left field will be
made to point to the in-order predecessor of the node.
• Such a one way threaded tree is called a left threaded binary tree.
• On the contrary, if the thread appears in the right field, then it will
point to the in-order successor of the node. Such a one way
threaded tree is called a right threaded binary tree.

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 Threaded Binary Tree Example

Binary tree with

one-way
threading

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 Threaded Binary Tree Example

Binary tree with

two-way
threading

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 Advantages
• It enables linear traversal of elements in the tree
• Linear traversal eliminates the use of stacks which in turn
consume a lot of memory space and computer time
• It enables to find the parent of a given element without
explicit use of parent pointers
• Since nodes contain pointers to in-order predecessor and
successor, the threaded tree enables forward and backward
traversal of the nodes as given by in-order fashion

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 Summary
• Binary Search Tree (BST) is a binary tree with properties:
– Every node has a key and no two nodes have the
same key (keys are unique).
– Left sub tree’s keys are smaller than root’s key.
– Right sub tree’s keys are larger than root’s key.
– The left and right sub trees are also binary search tree
(recursively).
• A threaded binary tree is same as that of a binary tree but
with a difference in storing NULL pointers

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 References
• Reema Thareja,. 2014. Data structures using C. OXFOR. New
Delhi. ISBN:978-0-19-809930-7 Chapter 10
• Threaded Binary Tree
http://quiz.geeksforgeeks.org/threaded-binary-tree/

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 END
Introduction to Binary Search Tree
and Threaded Binary Tree

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