binary search trees and text

hi,

i have to create a program that takes a line of text and puts it in a binary search tree.

from my understanding, a bst is balanced where the root node is an item and if the next item is less than the root, then it gets pointed to by the root's left pointer. and if it's greater than the root, then it gets pointed to by the root's right pointer. and throw in some recurssion and you have yourself a balanced bst.

my main problem is comprehending the part about the line of text and the bst. so far i've only dealt with numbers. how can i do this using words? given a line of text, i can separate it using getline and other methods to manipulate strings.

thanks,
barneygumble742

Hi,

<string>'s can be compared just like numbers:

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
 
int main()
{
        string str1 = "akkkkk";
        string str2 = "zkkkkk";

        string str3 = "mmmmmma";
        string str4 = "mmmmmmz";

        cout<<( (str1 < str2)? str1:str2)<<endl;
        cout<<( (str3 < str4)? str3:str4)<<endl;

        return 0;
}

---

The comparison operator < looks at the first character of both strings and compares their integer ascii codes. Characters are stored internally as their ascii codes, so you should take a brief look at an ascii table to see how the character codes are ordered. The comparison operator< returns true or false depending on the ascii codes of the first chars in the string. If the first chars are the same, then the 2nd chars in each string are examined.

In the example code, with the first pair of strings the comparison< operator results in true after examining only the first char of each string. With the second pair, the comparison progresses along each string until the chars differ.

While you think of a string as a collection of characters, a computer views a string as a collection of integers. Computers can only store numbers, so anything stored inside a computer has to be converted to a number.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by barneygumble742

hi,
from my understanding, a bst is balanced where the root node is an item and if the next item is less than the root, then it gets pointed to by the root's left pointer. and if it's greater than the root, then it gets pointed to by the root's right pointer. and throw in some recurssion and you have yourself a balanced bst.

---

That has nothing to do with whether or not the tree is balanced, it is simply a matter of how the data structure is ordered, lesser items take one path (left for example) and greater items take the other path.

Definition of a balanced binary tree (coutesy of NIST.GOV ):

Quote:

---

A binary tree where no leaf is more than a certain amount farther from the root than any other. After inserting or deleting a node, the tree may rebalanced with "rotations."

---

If you can do this with numbers then you shouldn't have any problem doing this with words.

Let's say you were given a bunch of words in this particular order:-

Code:

---

John  Joe  Alice Susan

---

And you were asked to insert them into a binary tree. Using the rules already established for binary trees.

First of all lets convert the names into numbers. Using Alphabetical order as a guideline.

So:-

Code:

---

John = 3
Joe = 2
Alice = 1
Susan = 4

---

If we were to enter these numbers (in this particular order), the binary tree would look like this:-

Insert 3:

Code:

---

 
3

---

Insert 2:

Code:

---

   
        3
      /
    2

---

Insert 1:

Code:

---

   
          3
        /
        2
      /
      1

---

Insert 4:

Code:

---


        3
        / \
      2  4
      /
    1

---

You should be comfortable with this.

Inserting names or words would be exactly the same.

Because you can use 'strings' it makes life a lot easier than using char arrays.
You can compare strings just like you would compare numbers. See 7Stud's explanation

Therefore the Tree would look like this:-

Code:

---

      John
        / \
      Joe  Susan
      /
    Alice

---

See here for more details...

http://math.hws.edu/eck/cs225/s03/binary_trees/

This may also be useful
http://www.cs.usask.ca/resources/tut...ree_index.html

Reading in a line would be no different. You would just split the line into words using the whitespace as a delimiter. So long as your structure for defining a BST is up to scratch you should have no problems.