How to implement a binary search tree in Python?

Question

This is what I\'ve got so far but it is not working:

class Node:
    rChild,lChild,data = None,None,None

    def __init__(self,key):
        self.rChild = N         


        

Answer 1

Just something to help you to start on.

A (simple idea of) binary tree search would be quite likely be implement in python according the lines:

def search(node, key):
    if node is None: return None  # key not found
    if key< node.key: return search(node.left, key)
    elif key> node.key: return search(node.right, key)
    else: return node.value  # found key

Now you just need to implement the scaffolding (tree creation and value inserts) and you are done.

Answer 2

Here is a compact, object oriented, recursive implementation:

    class BTreeNode(object):
        def __init__(self, data):
            self.data = data
            self.rChild = None
            self.lChild = None

    def __str__(self):
        return (self.lChild.__str__() + '<-' if self.lChild != None else '') + self.data.__str__() + ('->' + self.rChild.__str__() if self.rChild != None else '')

    def insert(self, btreeNode):
        if self.data > btreeNode.data: #insert left
            if self.lChild == None:
                self.lChild = btreeNode
            else:
                self.lChild.insert(btreeNode)
        else: #insert right
            if self.rChild == None:
                self.rChild = btreeNode
            else:
                self.rChild.insert(btreeNode)


def main():
    btreeRoot = BTreeNode(5)
    print 'inserted %s:' %5, btreeRoot

    btreeRoot.insert(BTreeNode(7))
    print 'inserted %s:' %7, btreeRoot

    btreeRoot.insert(BTreeNode(3))
    print 'inserted %s:' %3, btreeRoot

    btreeRoot.insert(BTreeNode(1))
    print 'inserted %s:' %1, btreeRoot

    btreeRoot.insert(BTreeNode(2))
    print 'inserted %s:' %2, btreeRoot

    btreeRoot.insert(BTreeNode(4))
    print 'inserted %s:' %4, btreeRoot

    btreeRoot.insert(BTreeNode(6))
    print 'inserted %s:' %6, btreeRoot

The output of the above main() is:

inserted 5: 5
inserted 7: 5->7
inserted 3: 3<-5->7
inserted 1: 1<-3<-5->7
inserted 2: 1->2<-3<-5->7
inserted 4: 1->2<-3->4<-5->7
inserted 6: 1->2<-3->4<-5->6<-7

Answer 3

class TreeNode:
    def __init__(self, value):
        self.value = value
        self.left = None
        self.right = None


class BinaryTree:
    def __init__(self, root=None):
        self.root = root

    def add_node(self, node, value):
        """
        Node points to the left of value if node > value; right otherwise,
        BST cannot have duplicate values
        """
        if node is not None:
            if value < node.value:
                if node.left is None:
                    node.left = TreeNode(value)
                else:
                    self.add_node(node.left, value)
            else:
                if node.right is None:
                    node.right = TreeNode(value)
                else:
                    self.add_node(node.right, value)
        else:
            self.root = TreeNode(value)

    def search(self, value):
        """
        Value will be to the left of node if node > value; right otherwise.
        """
        node = self.root
        while node is not None:
            if node.value == value:
                return True     # node.value
            if node.value > value:
                node = node.left
            else:
                node = node.right
        return False

    def traverse_inorder(self, node):
        """
        Traverse the left subtree of a node as much as possible, then traverse
        the right subtree, followed by the parent/root node.
        """
        if node is not None:
            self.traverse_inorder(node.left)
            print(node.value)
            self.traverse_inorder(node.right)


def main():
    binary_tree = BinaryTree()
    binary_tree.add_node(binary_tree.root, 200)
    binary_tree.add_node(binary_tree.root, 300)
    binary_tree.add_node(binary_tree.root, 100)
    binary_tree.add_node(binary_tree.root, 30)
    binary_tree.traverse_inorder(binary_tree.root)
    print(binary_tree.search(200))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Answer 4

class Node: 
    rChild,lChild,data = None,None,None

This is wrong - it makes your variables class variables - that is, every instance of Node uses the same values (changing rChild of any node changes it for all nodes!). This is clearly not what you want; try

class Node: 
    def __init__(self, key):
        self.rChild = None
        self.lChild = None
        self.data = key

now each node has its own set of variables. The same applies to your definition of Tree,

class Tree:
    root,size = None,0    # <- lose this line!
    def __init__(self):
        self.root = None
        self.size = 0

Further, each class should be a "new-style" class derived from the "object" class and should chain back to object.__init__():

class Node(object): 
    def __init__(self, data, rChild=None, lChild=None):
        super(Node,self).__init__()
        self.data   = data
        self.rChild = rChild
        self.lChild = lChild

class Tree(object):
    def __init__(self):
        super(Tree,self).__init__()
        self.root = None
        self.size = 0

Also, main() is indented too far - as shown, it is a method of Tree which is uncallable because it does not accept a self argument.

Also, you are modifying the object's data directly (t.root = Node(4)) which kind of destroys encapsulation (the whole point of having classes in the first place); you should be doing something more like

def main():
    t = Tree()
    t.add(4)    # <- let the tree create a data Node and insert it
    t.add(5)

Answer 5

Here is a quick example of a binary insert:

class Node:
    def __init__(self, val):
        self.l_child = None
        self.r_child = None
        self.data = val

def binary_insert(root, node):
    if root is None:
        root = node
    else:
        if root.data > node.data:
            if root.l_child is None:
                root.l_child = node
            else:
                binary_insert(root.l_child, node)
        else:
            if root.r_child is None:
                root.r_child = node
            else:
                binary_insert(root.r_child, node)

def in_order_print(root):
    if not root:
        return
    in_order_print(root.l_child)
    print root.data
    in_order_print(root.r_child)

def pre_order_print(root):
    if not root:
        return        
    print root.data
    pre_order_print(root.l_child)
    pre_order_print(root.r_child)    

---

r = Node(3)
binary_insert(r, Node(7))
binary_insert(r, Node(1))
binary_insert(r, Node(5))

---

     3
    / \
   1   7
      /
     5

---

print "in order:"
in_order_print(r)

print "pre order"
pre_order_print(r)

in order:
1
3
5
7
pre order
3
1
7
5

Answer 6

its easy to implement a BST using two classes, 1. Node and 2. Tree Tree class will be just for user interface, and actual methods will be implemented in Node class.

class Node():

    def __init__(self,val):
        self.value = val
        self.left = None
        self.right = None


    def _insert(self,data):
        if data == self.value:
            return False
        elif data < self.value:
            if self.left:
                return self.left._insert(data)
            else:
                self.left = Node(data)
                return True
        else:
            if self.right:
                return self.right._insert(data)
            else:
                self.right = Node(data)
                return True

    def _inorder(self):
        if self:
            if self.left:
                self.left._inorder()
            print(self.value)
            if self.right:
                self.right._inorder()



class Tree():

    def __init__(self):
        self.root = None

    def insert(self,data):
        if self.root:
            return self.root._insert(data)
        else:
            self.root = Node(data)
            return True
    def inorder(self):
        if self.root is not None:
            return self.root._inorder()
        else:
            return False




if __name__=="__main__":
    a = Tree()
    a.insert(16)
    a.insert(8)
    a.insert(24)
    a.insert(6)
    a.insert(12)
    a.insert(19)
    a.insert(29)
    a.inorder()

Inorder function for checking whether BST is properly implemented.