Skip to main content

Binary tree traversal in C

In an earlier post, we have seen how to add a new node to a binary tree.

Binary Tree Terminology:

  • Tree is a non-linear data structure where every node has multiple branches
  • A binary tree is a tree where each node has maximum 2 branches
  • Each node branching out is called child node 
  • The starting node of the tree is called root
  • The two children of binary tree are left child and right child.
  • The child node along with its branches and sub-branches are called sub-tree. 
  • A node has two sub-trees - left subtree and right subtree
  • A node which has no child nodes and hence no subtrees is called a leaf node
    Image from : http://msoe.us/taylor

Normally when we talk about binary tree, we refer to binary search tree which is ordered tree.
In a binary search tree, every node to the right of a given node will have larger value than the given node. And every node to the left of given node will have value smaller than given node.
That is to say the left subtree of any node has values smaller than parent and right subtree of any node has values larger than parent.

Tree traversal

In case of lists, stacks or queues, the traversal was simple. Because they are linear data structures. You start from first node, then visit the second node, then third node and so on until last node. Or you can start from last node and come backwards till first node.

But a tree is a non-linear structure. Each node has multiple branches. In case of binary tree, each node has two branches (also called children)- left and right. So which node to we visit after a given node? Its left child ? Or its right child? How do we ensure that we visit all the nodes of the tree and visit these nodes only once?

There are three ways of traversing a tree. 
  1. In order traversal - For any node, 
    1. we visit all the nodes in left subtree of a node, 
    2. visit parent,
    3. visit all nodes in right subtree
  2. Pre order traversal
    1. We visit the parent node
    2. visit all nodes of left subtree
    3. visit all nodes of right subtree.
  3. Post order traversal
    1. We visit visit all nodes of left subtree
    2. visit all nodes of right subtree
    3. and finally we visit parent node.

Let us write the inorder for the BST given above.

  1. Inorder - 1  -- 3 -- 4 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 10 -- 13 -- 14
  2. Preorder   8 -- 3 -- 1 -- 6 -- 4 -- 7 -- 10 -- 14 -- 13
  3. Postorder  1 -- 4 -- 7 -- 6 -- 3 -- 13 -- 14 -- 10 -- 8

In inorder, we start with root 8. But before we visit 8, we should visit all nodes of left subtree. So we branch to 3. Before we visit 3, we go to its left child 1. Since 1 has no left child, we print 1. Now we have visited complete left branch of 3. So we print 3 and then we go to 6. Before we print 6, we should go to its left child 4. As 4 is leaf node (node with no children), it is printed. After visiting 4, which is left branch of 6, we can print parent viz 6. Next we go to right branch of 6.

 So you can write down like this.

But a recursive function for these in very simple. Or really very small.



void in_order(NODEPTR nd)
{
   if(nd!=NULL)
    {
        in_order(nd->left);/*visit left subtree*/
        printf("%d---",nd->val);
        in_order(nd->right);/*visit right subtree*/
     }
}

When you run the program, you will notice that, inorder traversal will print the nodes in ascending order of values.

Similarly you can write preorder and postorder traversal functions too.


void pre_order(NODEPTR nd)
{
   if(nd!=NULL)
    {
        printf("%d---",nd->val);   
        pre_order(nd->left);
        pre_order(nd->right);
            
     }
}

void post_order(NODEPTR nd)
{
   if(nd!=NULL)
    {    
 post_order(nd->left);
        post_order(nd->right);
        printf("%d---",nd->val);
     }
}

Here is the complete program.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
struct node
{
   int val;
   struct node *left;
   struct node *right;
};
typedef struct node *NODEPTR;

NODEPTR create_node(int num)
{
     NODEPTR temp = (NODEPTR)malloc(sizeof(struct node));
     temp->val = num;
     temp->left = NULL;
     temp->right = NULL;
     return temp;
}

NODEPTR insert_node(NODEPTR nd,NODEPTR newnode)
{
    if(nd==NULL)
       return newnode;/* newnode becomes root of tree*/
    if(newnode->val > nd->val)
        nd->right = insert_node(nd->right,newnode);
    else if(newnode->val <  nd->val)
        nd->left = insert_node(nd->left,newnode); 
    return nd;   
}

void in_order(NODEPTR nd)
{
   if(nd!=NULL)
    {
        in_order(nd->left);
        printf("%d---",nd->val);
        in_order(nd->right);
     }
}

void pre_order(NODEPTR nd)
{
   if(nd!=NULL)
    {
        printf("%d---",nd->val);   
        pre_order(nd->left);
        pre_order(nd->right);
            
     }
}

void post_order(NODEPTR nd)
{
   if(nd!=NULL)
    {    
 post_order(nd->left);
        post_order(nd->right);
        printf("%d---",nd->val);
     }
}

int main()
{
       NODEPTR root=NULL; 
       int n;
       do
       {
           NODEPTR newnode;
           printf("Enter value of node(-1 to exit):");
           scanf("%d",&n);
           if(n!=-1)
            {  
               newnode = create_node(n);
               root = insert_node(root,newnode);
             }
       } while (n!=-1);
       printf("Preorder traversal\n");
       pre_order(root);
       printf("\nInorder traversal\n");
       in_order(root);
       printf("\nPostorder traversal\n");
       post_order(root);
       return 0;
}

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Delete a node from doubly linked list

Deletion operation in DLL is simpler when compared to SLL. Because we don't have to go in search of previous node of to-be-deleted node.  Here is how you delete a node Link previous node of node of to-be-deleted to next node. Link next node of node of to-be-deleted to previous node. Free the memory of node of to-be-deleted Simple, isn't it. The code can go like this. prevnode = delnode->prev; nextnode = delnode->next; prevnode->next = nextnode; nextnode->prev = prevnode; free(delnode); And that is it. The node delnode is deleted. But we should always consider boundary conditions. What happens if we are trying to delete the first node or last node? If first node is to be deleted, its previous node is NULL. Hence step 3 should not be used.  And also, once head is deleted, nextnode becomes head . Similarly if last node is to be deleted, nextnode is NULL. Hence step 4 is as strict NO NO. And we should set prevnode to tail. After we put these things together, we have...

Binary tree deletion - non-recursive

In the previous post we have seen how to delete a node of a binary search tree using recursion. Today we will see how to delete a node of BST using a non-recursive function. Let us revisit the 3 scenarios here Deleting a node with no children just link the parent to NULL Deleting a node with one child link the parent to  non-null child of node to be deleted Deleting a node with both children select the successor of node to be deleted copy successor's value into this node delete the successor In order to start, we need a function to search for a node in binary search tree. Did you know that searching in  a BST is very fast, and is of the order O(logn). To search Start with root Repeat until value is found or node is NULL If the search value is greater than node branch to right If the search value is lesser than node branch to left.  Here is the function NODEPTR find_node (NODEPTR root,NODEPTR * parent, int delval) { NODEPTR nd = root; NODEPTR pa = root; if (ro...

Function to sort an array using bubble sort

Quick and dirty way of sorting an array is bubble sort. It is very easy to write and follow. But please keep in mind that it is not at all effecient. #include<iostream> using std::cin; using std::cout; void readArray(int arr[],int sz); void printArray(int arr[],int sz); void sortArray(int arr[],int sz); void swap(int &a,int &b); int main() {    int sz;    cout<<"Size of the array=";    cin>>sz;    int arr[sz];    readArray(arr,sz);     sortArray(arr,sz);   cout<<"Sorted array is ";   printArray(arr,sz); } void readArray(int arr[],int sz) {  for(int i=0;i<sz;i++)    {       cout<<"arr["<<i<<"]=";       cin>>arr[i];   } } void printArray(int arr[],int sz) {  for(int i=0;i<sz;i++)    {       cout<<"arr["<<i<<"]=";    ...