A tree is a hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges. It is a widely-used data structure in computer science and is used in many algorithms and applications.
There are many different types of trees, each with its own unique characteristics. Here are some of the most common types of trees:
A free tree is a tree where each node can have any number of child nodes. In other words, there are no restrictions on the number of child nodes a node can have. Free trees are also known as general trees.
A rooted tree is a tree where one node is designated as the root node. The root node is typically drawn at the top of the tree. All other nodes in the tree are either parent nodes, child nodes, or leaf nodes.
A binary tree is a tree where each node can have at most two child nodes. The child nodes are typically referred to as the left child and the right child. Binary trees are commonly used in data structures such as binary search trees and heaps.
A binary search tree is a binary tree where the left child of a node is less than the node and the right child of a node is greater than the node. This property makes binary search trees useful for searching and sorting operations.
An AVL tree is a binary search tree where the difference in height between the left and right subtrees of any node is at most one. This property ensures that the tree is balanced, which leads to faster search and insertion times.
A red-black tree is a binary search tree with the following properties: