A binary tree is a hierarchical data structure composed of nodes, where each node has at most two children, referred to as the left child and the right child.
The topmost node of the tree is called the root, and it is the only node in the tree without a parent. Each node in a binary tree contains a value or data and may have pointers (references) to its left and right children.
Here are some characteristics of a binary tree:
-
Root Node: The topmost node of the tree is called the root. It is the entry point to the tree.
-
Parent and Child Nodes: Each node in a binary tree may have at most two children, referred to as the left child and the right child. Nodes other than the root are called internal nodes, and nodes without children are called leaf nodes or external nodes.
-
Subtrees: Each child of a node in a binary tree can itself be the root of a binary tree, called the left subtree and the right subtree.
-
Depth and Height: The depth of a node is the number of edges from the root to that node. The height of a tree is the maximum depth of any node in the tree.
Binary trees are widely used in computer science and programming due to their efficient search, insertion, and deletion operations. They are fundamental in algorithms and data structures and are utilized in various applications such as binary search trees, expression trees, and binary heaps.
