Binary search trees
A binary tree is an interesting data structure that allows the creation of a hierarchy of elements, with the restriction that each node can contain at most two children, but without any rules about relationships between the nodes. For this reason, if you want to check whether a binary tree contains a given value, you need to check each node, traversing the tree using one of three available modes: pre-order, in-order, or post-order. This means that the lookup time is linear, namely O(n).
What about a situation where there are some precise rules regarding relations between nodes in a tree? Let’s imagine a scenario where you know that the left subtree contains nodes with values smaller than the root’s value, while the right subtree contains nodes with values greater than the root’s value. Then, you can compare the searched value with the current node and decide whether you should continue searching in the left or right subtree. Such an approach...
