# Binary Search Tree _Read this in other languages:_ [_Português_](README.pt-BR.md) In computer science, **binary search trees** (BST), sometimes called ordered or sorted binary trees, are a particular type of container: data structures that store "items" (such as numbers, names etc.) in memory. They allow fast lookup, addition and removal of items, and can be used to implement either dynamic sets of items, or lookup tables that allow finding an item by its key (e.g., finding the phone number of a person by name). Binary search trees keep their keys in sorted order, so that lookup and other operations can use the principle of binary search: when looking for a key in a tree (or a place to insert a new key), they traverse the tree from root to leaf, making comparisons to keys stored in the nodes of the tree and deciding, on the basis of the comparison, to continue searching in the left or right subtrees. On average, this means that each comparison allows the operations to skip about half of the tree, so that each lookup, insertion or deletion takes time proportional to the logarithm of the number of items stored in the tree. This is much better than the linear time required to find items by key in an (unsorted) array, but slower than the corresponding operations on hash tables. A binary search tree of size 9 and depth 3, with 8 at the root. The leaves are not drawn.  *Made with [okso.app](https://okso.app)* ## Pseudocode for Basic Operations ### Insertion ```text insert(value) Pre: value has passed custom type checks for type T Post: value has been placed in the correct location in the tree if root = ø root ← node(value) else insertNode(root, value) end if end insert ``` ```text insertNode(current, value) Pre: current is the node to start from Post: value has been placed in the correct location in the tree if value < current.value if current.left = ø current.left ← node(value) else InsertNode(current.left, value) end if else if current.right = ø current.right ← node(value) else InsertNode(current.right, value) end if end if end insertNode ``` ### Searching ```text contains(root, value) Pre: root is the root node of the tree, value is what we would like to locate Post: value is either located or not if root = ø return false end if if root.value = value return true else if value < root.value return contains(root.left, value) else return contains(root.right, value) end if end contains ``` ### Deletion ```text remove(value) Pre: value is the value of the node to remove, root is the node of the BST count is the number of items in the BST Post: node with value is removed if found in which case yields true, otherwise false nodeToRemove ← findNode(value) if nodeToRemove = ø return false end if parent ← findParent(value) if count = 1 root ← ø else if nodeToRemove.left = ø and nodeToRemove.right = ø if nodeToRemove.value < parent.value parent.left ← nodeToRemove.right else parent.right ← nodeToRemove.right end if else if nodeToRemove.left != ø and nodeToRemove.right != ø next ← nodeToRemove.right while next.left != ø next ← next.left end while if next != nodeToRemove.right remove(next.value) nodeToRemove.value ← next.value else nodeToRemove.value ← next.value nodeToRemove.right ← nodeToRemove.right.right end if else if nodeToRemove.left = ø next ← nodeToRemove.right else next ← nodeToRemove.left end if if root = nodeToRemove root = next else if parent.left = nodeToRemove parent.left = next else if parent.right = nodeToRemove parent.right = next end if end if count ← count - 1 return true end remove ``` ### Find Parent of Node ```text findParent(value, root) Pre: value is the value of the node we want to find the parent of root is the root node of the BST and is != ø Post: a reference to the prent node of value if found; otherwise ø if value = root.value return ø end if if value < root.value if root.left = ø return ø else if root.left.value = value return root else return findParent(value, root.left) end if else if root.right = ø return ø else if root.right.value = value return root else return findParent(value, root.right) end if end if end findParent ``` ### Find Node ```text findNode(root, value) Pre: value is the value of the node we want to find the parent of root is the root node of the BST Post: a reference to the node of value if found; otherwise ø if root = ø return ø end if if root.value = value return root else if value < root.value return findNode(root.left, value) else return findNode(root.right, value) end if end findNode ``` ### Find Minimum ```text findMin(root) Pre: root is the root node of the BST root = ø Post: the smallest value in the BST is located if root.left = ø return root.value end if findMin(root.left) end findMin ``` ### Find Maximum ```text findMax(root) Pre: root is the root node of the BST root = ø Post: the largest value in the BST is located if root.right = ø return root.value end if findMax(root.right) end findMax ``` ### Traversal #### InOrder Traversal ```text inorder(root) Pre: root is the root node of the BST Post: the nodes in the BST have been visited in inorder if root != ø inorder(root.left) yield root.value inorder(root.right) end if end inorder ``` #### PreOrder Traversal ```text preorder(root) Pre: root is the root node of the BST Post: the nodes in the BST have been visited in preorder if root != ø yield root.value preorder(root.left) preorder(root.right) end if end preorder ``` #### PostOrder Traversal ```text postorder(root) Pre: root is the root node of the BST Post: the nodes in the BST have been visited in postorder if root != ø postorder(root.left) postorder(root.right) yield root.value end if end postorder ``` ## Complexities ### Time Complexity | Access | Search | Insertion | Deletion | | :-------: | :-------: | :-------: | :-------: | | O(log(n)) | O(log(n)) | O(log(n)) | O(log(n)) | ### Space Complexity O(n) ## References - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_search_tree) - [Inserting to BST on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcIRPqTR3Kc&list=PLLXdhg_r2hKA7DPDsunoDZ-Z769jWn4R8&index=9&t=0s) - [BST Interactive Visualisations](https://www.cs.usfca.edu/~galles/visualization/BST.html)