Binary Trees and Binary Search Trees: Exploring the Differences

Diving into the World of Trees

Binary trees and binary search trees are fundamental data structures in computer science. While they may seem similar, there are key differences that set them apart.

At its core, a binary tree is a tree data structure in which each node has at most two children, known as the left child and the right child. These children can, in turn, have their own left and right children, forming a hierarchical structure.

On the other hand, a binary search tree, also known as an ordered binary tree, is a type of binary tree with the additional property that the left child of a node is always less than the node, and the right child is always greater than the node. This ordering property makes searching, inserting, and deleting elements in a binary search tree more efficient.

While every binary search tree is a binary tree because it follows the structure of having at most two children per node, not every binary tree is a binary search tree. The key distinction lies in the ordering of nodes and the resulting implications for operations on the tree.