2. BASIC TERMINOLOGY
◦ In linear data structure data is organized in sequential order and in non-linear
data structure data is organized in random order. A tree is a very popular non-
linear data structure used in a wide range of applications.
◦ Tree is a non-linear data structure which organizes data in hierarchical structure
and this is a recursive definition.
◦ In tree data structure, every individual element is called as Node. Node in a
tree data structure stores the actual data of that particular element and link to
next element in hierarchical structure.
◦ In a tree data structure, if we have N number of nodes then we can have a
maximum of N- 1 number of links.
3. Terminology:
◦In a tree data structure, we use the following terminology
1. Root
2. Edge
3. Parent
4. Child
5. Siblings
6. Leaf
7. Internal Nodes
8. Degree
9. Level
10.Height
11.Depth
12.Path
13.Sub Tree
4. Root
In a tree data structure, the first node is
called as Root Node. Every tree must have
a root node. We can say that the root node
is the origin of the tree data structure. In
any tree, there must be only one root node.
We never have multiple root nodes in a
tree.
Edge
In a tree data structure, the connecting
link between any two nodes is called as
EDGE. In a tree with 'N' number of nodes
there will be a maximum of 'N-1' number
of edges.
5. Parent
In a tree data structure, the node which is a
predecessor of any node is called as PARENT
NODE. In simple words, the node which has a
branch from it to any other node is called a parent
node. Parent node can also be defined as "The node
which has child / children".
Child
In a tree data structure, the node which is
descendant of any node is called as CHILD Node.
In simple words, the node which has a link from its
parent node is called as child node. In a tree, any
parent node can have any number of child nodes. In
a tree, all the nodes except root are child nodes.
6. Siblings
In a tree data structure, nodes which belong to
same Parent are called as SIBLINGS. In simple
words.
Leaf
In a tree data Structure, the node which does not
have a child is called as LEAF. , the leaf nodes
are also called as External Nodes. External node
is also a node with no child. In a tree, leaf node
is also called as 'Terminal' node.
7. Internal Nodes
In a tree data structure, the node which has at
least one child is called as INTERNAL Node.
The root node is also said to be Internal Node if
the tree has more than one node. Internal nodes
are also called as 'Non- Terminal' nodes.
Degree
In a tree data structure, the total number of
children of a node is called as DEGREE of
that Node. The highest degree of a node
among all the nodes in a tree is called as
'Degree of Tree'
8. Level
In a tree data structure, the root node is said to
be at Level 0 and the children of root node are at
Level 1 and the children of the nodes which are
at Level 1 will be at Level 2 and so on... In
simple words, in a tree each step from top to
bottom is called as a Level and the Level count
starts with '0' and incremented by one at each
level (Step).
Height
In a tree data structure, the total number of
edges from leaf node to a particular node in the
longest path is called as HEIGHT of that Node.
In a tree, height of the root node is said to be
height of the tree. In a tree, height of all leaf
nodes is '0’.
9. Depth
In a tree data structure, the total number of edges
from root node to a particular node is called as
DEPTH of that Node. In simple words, the highest
depth of any leaf node in a tree is said to be depth of
that tree. In a tree, depth of the root node is '0’.
Path
In a tree data structure, the sequence of Nodes and
Edges from one node to another node is called as
PATH between that two Nodes. Length of a Path
is total number of nodes in that path. In below
example the path A - B - E - J has length 4.
10. Sub Tree
In a tree data structure, each child from a node forms a subtree recursively. Every child node
will form a subtree on its parent node.