GATE CS 1999 Question 21

This question requires knowledge of data structures and algorithms in computer science. It is a problem that requires the programmer to write code to solve it.

Problem Description

Suppose there is a binary search tree with n nodes. We want to obtain an ordered list of all the elements in the tree. Write a program to implement this functionality.

Solution Description

The program should traverse the binary search tree in a specific order to obtain the ordered list of elements. One way to do this is by using inorder traversal.

In order to implement the inorder traversal, we can use a recursive approach. We start at the root of the tree and recursively traverse the left subtree, visit the node, and then recursively traverse the right subtree. This will give us the elements in the binary search tree in ascending order.

Here is the code to implement the inorder traversal in Python:

class Node:
    def __init__(self, data=None):
        self.left = None
        self.right = None
        self.data = data

def inorder_traversal(node):
    if node is not None:
        inorder_traversal(node.left)
        print(node.data)
        inorder_traversal(node.right)

Using this code, we can obtain the ordered list of all elements in the binary search tree. We can call the inorder_traversal function with the root of the tree as the input parameter.

Conclusion

In summary, the program to obtain an ordered list of elements in a binary search tree involves implementing the inorder traversal. This can be done using a recursive approach as shown in the code snippet above. By understanding the data structures and algorithms used in this problem, computer programmers can efficiently solve similar problems in their work.