Binary Tree

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What Does Binary Tree Mean?

A binary tree is a tree data structure where each node has up to two child nodes, creating the branches of the tree. The two children are usually called the left and right nodes. Parent nodes are nodes with children, while child nodes may include references to their parents.

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Techopedia Explains Binary Tree

A binary tree is made up of at most two nodes, often called the left and right nodes, and a data element. The topmost node of the tree is called the root node, and the left and right pointers direct to smaller subtrees on either side.

Binary trees are used to implement binary search trees and binary heaps. They are also often used for sorting data as in a heap sort.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.