Introduction to N-ary Tree - The Coding Shala

Last Updated: 26-Jan-2021
Home >> Data Structures >> Introduction to N-ary Tree

 In this post, we will learn what is N-ary Tree and how to traverse the N-ary Tree using Preorder and Postorder.

Introduction to N-ary Tree

An N-ary tree is a rooted tree in which each node has no more than N children, called an N-ary tree also known as the k-way tree. So we can say that a binary tree is a special form of N-ary tree having N equals to 2. A Binary tree has no more than 2 children at each node.

Here is an example of 3-ary tree:


   A
       /    |   \
      B   C  D
     /  \   |
    E  F G

Trie is one of the most frequently used N-ary trees.

Traversal of N-ary Tree

Like a binary tree, we can also use the pre-order, post-order, and level-order traversal method to traversal an N-ary tree. 

Note: There is no standard definition for in-order traversal in n-ary trees.

Preorder Traversal of N-ary Tree

In an N-ary tree, preorder means visit the root node first and then traverse the subtree rooted at its children one by one.

Here is an example of Preorder Traversal of N-ary tree:

    A
       /   |  \
      B  C  D
     / \   |
   E  F G
   PreOrder: A-B-C-E-F-D-G

PostOrder Traversal of N-ary Tree

In an N-ary tree, postorder means traverse the subtree at its children first and then visit the root node itself.

Here is an example of postorder traversal of N-ary tree:

    A
       /   |  \
      B  C  D
      / \   |
    E  F G
PostOrder: B-E-F-C-G-D-A

Level-Order Traversal of N-ary Tree

In level-order traversal, we do a breadth-first search in a tree. We visit all the nodes at the same level first then we go to the next level.

Here is an example of level-order Traversal of N-ary tree:

    A
       /   |  \
      B  C  D
      / \   |
    E  F G
level-order: A-B-C-D-E-F-G


Other Posts You May Like
Please leave a comment below if you like this post or found some errors, it will help me to improve my content.

Comments

Popular Posts from this Blog

Shell Script to Create a Simple Calculator - The Coding Shala

N-th Tribonacci Number Solution - The Coding Shala

Java Program to Convert Binary to Decimal - The Coding Shala

LeetCode - Shuffle the Array Solution - The Coding Shala

Java Program to Find GCD or HCF of Two Numbers - The Coding Shala