Binary tree encoding

Question

Let's suppose you have a complete binary tree (i.e. each internal node has exactly two non empty descendants). Each node contains a nonzero integer. You are given the task of encoding and decoding the tree into/from a list of integers.

The tree is stored internally something like:

struct node {
  int data;
  struct node *left, *right;
};

And you have to implement two functions:

int *encode(struct node *root);
struct node *decode(int *array);

It is up to you how you encode and decode.

Points for:

• minimum encoding length
• complexity (ideally linear in number of nodes)
• originality

No points for source code length and you are not restricted to C.

Tree example:

     5
    / \
   3   2
      / \
     2   1
    / \
   9   9

Answer 1

~ 1.03 N

It seems all the answers so far take least 2*N * 32-bits to store. (Except the solutions in languages which allows integer values longer than 32 bits, like the Haskell and Ruby solutions - but those are still going to take extra bytes to encode whenever the data is greater than 16K.)

Here is a solution which only takes N+ceiling(N/32)+1 ints of storage. This approaches 1.03125 N for large N, and is under 1.1 N for all N greater than 20.

The idea is to store an extra bit for each node where 1 is "hasChildren". These bits are packed into N/32 words up front.

int* encodeHelper(Node* n, int* code, int* pos, int* flag)
{
   int hasKids = (n->left!=0);
   code[*flag/32]|=hasKids<<(*flag&31);
   *flag+=1;
   if (hasKids) bencodeHelper(n->left, code, pos, flag);
   code[*pos]=n->data;
   *pos+=1;
   if (hasKids) bencodeHelper(n->right, code, pos, flag);
   return code;
}

int* encode(Node* h, int* sizeOut)
{
   int nnodes=countNodes(h);
   int nflags = (int)ceil(nnodes/32.0);
   int pos=nflags+1;
   int flag=32;
   int* out;
   *sizeOut = 1+nnodes+nflags;
   out = calloc(*sizeOut, sizeof(int));
   if (!h) return out;
   out[0]=nflags+1; //store start of data
   return encodeHelper(h,out,&pos,&flag);
}

Node* decodeHelper(int* code, int* pos, int* flag)
{
   Node*n = calloc(1, sizeof(Node));
   int hasKids = code[*flag/32]>>(*flag&31)&1;
   *flag+=1;
   if (hasKids) n->left = bdecodeHelper(code, pos, flag);
   n->data = code[*pos];
   *pos+=1;
   if (hasKids) n->right = bdecodeHelper(code, pos, flag);
   return n;
}

Node* decode(int* code)
{
   int flag=32;
   int pos=code[0];
   if (!pos) return NULL;
   return decodeHelper(code, &pos, &flag);
}

(compelete implementation here)

Answer 2

This Haskell program encodes a tree of n nodes in n Integers. The trick is that it encodes the node's data doubled, and then uses the lower-order bit to indicate if this is a leaf node, or an interior node.

Technically, the Parser monad here is over-kill, since there is only one parser created, decoder and I could have put the parser chaining logic directly there. But this way the decoder is very clear, and the Parser despite it's small size, is a reasonable simple parsing framework.

import Control.Monad (ap)

data Tree = Leaf Integer | Node Integer Tree Tree
  deriving (Eq, Show)

encode :: Tree -> [Integer]
encode (Leaf n)     = [n*2]
encode (Node n t u) = (n*2+1) : encode t ++ encode u

decode :: [Integer] -> Maybe Tree
decode = fullyParse decoder
  where
    decoder :: Parser Integer Tree
    decoder = do
      i <- next
      let n = i `div` 2
      if even i
        then return (Leaf n)
        else return (Node n) `ap` decoder `ap` decoder

-- A simple Parsing Monad
data Parser a b = P { runParser :: [a] -> Maybe (b, [a]) }

instance Monad (Parser a) where
  return a = P ( \ts -> Just (a, ts) )
  p >>= q  = P ( \ts -> runParser p ts >>= (\(v,ts') -> runParser (q v) ts') )
  fail _   = P ( const Nothing )

next :: Parser a a
next = P n
 where n (t:ts) = Just (t,ts)
       n _      = Nothing

fullyParse :: Parser a b -> [a] -> Maybe b
fullyParse p ts = runParser p ts >>= consumedResult
  where
    consumedResult (v,[]) = Just v
    consumedResult _      = Nothing

-- Example
main :: IO ()
main = do
    putStrLn $ "example:  " ++ show ex
    putStrLn $ "encoding: " ++ show encEx
    putStrLn $ "decoding: " ++ show decEx
    putStrLn $ "worked?   " ++ show worked
  where
    ex = Node 5
          (Leaf 3)
          (Node 2
            (Node 2
              (Leaf 9)
              (Leaf 9)
            )
            (Leaf 1)
          )
    encEx = encode ex
    decEx = decode encEx
    worked = maybe False (ex ==) decEx

Running this gets you:

> runhaskell TreeEncoding.hs 
example:  Node 5 (Leaf 3) (Node 2 (Node 2 (Leaf 9) (Leaf 9)) (Leaf 1))
encoding: [11,6,5,5,18,18,2]
decoding: Just (Node 5 (Leaf 3) (Node 2 (Node 2 (Leaf 9) (Leaf 9)) (Leaf 1)))
worked?   True

Answer 3

In C

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

struct Node;
typedef struct Node Node;

struct Node
{
    int   data;
    Node* left;
    Node* right;
};
/* Private Functions */
static int*  encodeNode(Node* tree, int* store);
static Node* decodeNode(int** store);

/* Public Functions */
Node*   newNode(int data,Node* left,Node* right);
void    deleteTree(Node* tree);
int     countNodesTree(Node* tree);
int*    encode(Node *tree);
Node*   decode(int* store);
void    printTree(Node* tree);

Node* newNode(int data,Node* left,Node* right)
{
    Node* result    = (Node*)malloc(sizeof(Node));
    result->data    = data;
    result->left    = left;
    result->right   = right;

    return result;
}

void deleteTree(Node* tree)
{
    if (tree == NULL)
    {   return;
    }

    deleteTree(tree->left);
    deleteTree(tree->right);
    free(tree);
}

int countNodesTree(Node* tree)
{
    if (tree == NULL)
    {   return 0;
    }

    return    countNodesTree(tree->left)
            + countNodesTree(tree->right)
            + 1;
}

void printTree(Node* tree)
{
    if (tree == NULL)
    {
        fprintf(stdout, "- ");
    }
    else
    {
        fprintf(stdout, "%d ", tree->data);
        printTree(tree->left);
        printTree(tree->right);
    }
};

The encode:

int* encode(Node *tree)
{
    int     nodeCount   = countNodesTree(tree);
    int*    result      = (int*)malloc(sizeof(int) * (nodeCount * 2 + 1));

    // Put the node count in the first element.
    // This makes it easy to also serialize this object for transport
    // i.e. you can put it in a file or a stream (socket) and easily recover it.
    result[0]           = nodeCount;
    encodeNode(tree, result + 1);
    return result;
}

int* encodeNode(Node* tree, int* store)
{
    if (tree != NULL)
    {
        store[0]    = tree->data;
        /*
         * Slight overkill. for this question.
         * But works and makes future enhancement easy
         */
        store[1]    = (tree->left  == NULL ? 0 : 1)
                    + (tree->right == NULL ? 0 : 2);
        store += 2;

        store       = encodeNode(tree->left,  store);
        store       = encodeNode(tree->right, store);
    }
    return store;
}

The decode:

Node* decode(int* store)
{
    if (store == NULL)
    { fprintf(stderr, "Bad Input terminating: encode() always return non NULL\n");
      exit(1);
    }

    if (store[0] == 0)
    {
        return NULL;
    }

    store++;
    return decodeNode(&store);
}

Node* decodeNode(int** store)
{
    int     value   = (*store)[0];
    int     flag    = (*store)[1];
    (*store) += 2;

    Node*   left    = flag & 1 ? decodeNode(store) : NULL;
    Node*   right   = flag & 2 ? decodeNode(store) : NULL;

    return newNode(value, left, right);
}

Main:

int main()
{
    Node*   t = newNode(5,
                        newNode(3, NULL, NULL),
                        newNode(2,
                                newNode(2,
                                        newNode(9, NULL, NULL),
                                        newNode(9, NULL, NULL)
                                       ),
                                newNode(1, NULL, NULL)
                               )
                       );

    printTree(t);
    fprintf(stdout,"\n");

    int*    e   = encode(t);
    Node*   d   = decode(e);
    printTree(d);
    fprintf(stdout,"\n");

    free(e);
    deleteTree(d);
    deleteTree(t);
}

Note. Each node is encoded as two integers (plus one int for the count of nodes).
So the supplied tree encodes like this:

 7, 5, 3, 3, 0, 2, 3, 2, 3, 9, 0, 9, 0 1, 0
 ^  ^
 ^  ^ Node 1
 ^
 Count

Answer 4

In Ruby, with the same encoding than @MtnViewMark :

class Node
        def initialize(data, left = nil, right = nil)
                @data, @left, @right = data, left, right
        end

        def encode
                "%d %s %s" % [@data<<1|1, @left.encode, @right.encode]
        end

        class << self
                def decode(str)
                        _decode(str.split.map &:to_i)
                end

                private

                def _decode(a)
                        n = a.shift
                        if n & 1 == 1
                                Node.new(n>>1, _decode(a), _decode(a))
                        else
                                Leaf.new(n>>1)
                        end
                end
        end
end

class Leaf < Node
        def encode
                (@data<<1).to_s
        end
end

tree=Node.decode("11 6 5 5 18 18 2")
print tree.encode

The cost is one integer per node (data << 1 | has_childs) :

11 6 5 5 18 18 2

Answer 5

Given a binary tree with n nodes, this encodes it in a list of 2n + 1 integers. Both the encoding and decoding algorithms have O(n) complexity.

I use the 0 integer as a sentinel marker when encoding, indicating when I unfold the recursion. Then when I'm decoding, I put the tree nodes I'm creating on a stack (of sorts) and use the 0s in the list to keep track of where to add the next node. I haven't tried, but I'm pretty sure the decoding would break if the tree was not complete.

#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

// Prototypes
struct BTnode;
struct BTnode * bt_add_left(struct BTnode * node, int data);
struct BTnode * bt_add_right(struct BTnode * node, int data);
int             bt_depth(struct BTnode * tree);
int             bt_encode_preorder(int * list, struct BTnode * tree, int index);
struct BTnode * bt_node_create(int data);
int             bt_node_delete(struct BTnode * node);
void            bt_print_preorder(struct BTnode * tree);
int *           encode(struct BTnode * tree);
struct BTnode * decode(int * list);

// Binary tree node
struct BTnode
{
  int data;
  struct BTnode *left, *right;
};

// Add node to this node's left
struct BTnode * bt_add_left(struct BTnode * node, int data)
{
  struct BTnode * newnode = bt_node_create(data);
  node->left = newnode;
  return newnode;
}

// Add node to this node's right
struct BTnode * bt_add_right(struct BTnode * node, int data)
{
  struct BTnode * newnode = bt_node_create(data);
  node->right = newnode;
  return newnode;
}

// Determine depth of the tree
int bt_depth(struct BTnode * tree)
{
  int depth;
  int leftdepth = 0;
  int  rightdepth = 0;
  if( tree == NULL ) return 0;

  if( tree->left != NULL )
    leftdepth = bt_depth(tree->left);
  if( tree->right != NULL )
    rightdepth = bt_depth(tree->right);

  depth = leftdepth;
  if(rightdepth > leftdepth)
    depth = rightdepth;

  return depth + 1;
}

// Recursively add node values to integer list, using 0 as an unfolding sentinel
int bt_encode_preorder(int * list, struct BTnode * tree, int index)
{
  list[ index++ ] = tree->data;

  // This assumes the tree is complete (i.e., if the current node does not have
  // a left child, then it does not have a right child either)
  if( tree->left != NULL )
  {
    index = bt_encode_preorder(list, tree->left, index);
    index = bt_encode_preorder(list, tree->right, index);
  }

  // Add sentinel
  list[ index++ ] = 0;
  return index;
}

// Allocate memory for a node
struct BTnode * bt_node_create(int data)
{
  struct BTnode * newnode = (struct BTnode *) malloc(sizeof(struct BTnode));
  newnode->left = NULL;
  newnode->right = NULL;
  newnode->data = data;
  return newnode;
}

// Free node memory
int bt_node_delete(struct BTnode * node)
{
  int data;
  if(node == NULL)
    return 0;
  data = node->data;

  if(node->left != NULL)
    bt_node_delete(node->left);
  if(node->right != NULL)
    bt_node_delete(node->right);

  free(node);
  return data;
}

// Print all values from the tree in pre-order
void bt_print_preorder(struct BTnode * tree)
{
  printf("%d ", tree->data);
  if(tree->left != NULL)
    bt_print_preorder(tree->left);
  if(tree->right != NULL)
    bt_print_preorder(tree->right);
}

// Decode binary tree structure from a list of integers
struct BTnode * decode(int * list)
{
  struct BTnode * tree;
  struct BTnode * nodestack[ list[0] ];
  int i,j;

  // Handle trivial case
  if( list == NULL ) return NULL;

  tree = bt_node_create( list[1] );
  nodestack[ 1 ] = tree;

  j = 1;
  for(i = 2; i < list[0]; i++)
  {
    if( list[i] == 0 )
    {
      //printf("popping\n");
      j--;
    }
    else
    {
      if( nodestack[j]->left == NULL )
      {
        //printf("Adding %d to left of %d\n", list[i], nodestack[j]->data);
        nodestack[ j+1 ] = bt_add_left(nodestack[j], list[i]);
        j++;
      }
      else
      {
        //printf("Adding %d to right of %d\n", list[i], nodestack[j]->data);
        nodestack[ j+1 ] = bt_add_right(nodestack[j], list[i]);
        j++;
      }
    }
  }

  return tree;
}

// Encode binary tree structure as a list of integers
int * encode(struct BTnode * tree)
{
  int maxnodes, depth, length;
  int * list;
  int j;

  // Handle trivial case
  if(tree == NULL) return NULL;

  // Calculate maximum number of nodes in the tree from the tree depth
  maxnodes = 1;
  depth = bt_depth(tree);
  for(j = 0; j < depth; j++)
  {
    maxnodes += pow(2, j);
  }

  // Allocate memory for the list; we need two ints for each value plus the
  // first value in the list to indicate length
  list = (int *) malloc( ((maxnodes * 2)+1) * sizeof(int));
  length = bt_encode_preorder(list, tree, 1);
  list[ 0 ] = length;
  return list;
}

int main()
{
  struct BTnode * tree;
  struct BTnode * newtree;
  int * list;
  int i;

  /* Provided example

        5
       / \
      3   2
         / \
        2   1
       / \
      9   9
  */
  tree = bt_node_create(5);
  bt_add_left(tree, 3);
  struct BTnode * temp = bt_add_right(tree, 2);
  bt_add_right(temp, 1);
  temp = bt_add_left(temp, 2);
  bt_add_left(temp, 9);
  bt_add_right(temp, 9);
  printf("T (traversed in pre-order):  ");
  bt_print_preorder(tree);
  printf("\n");

  list = encode(tree);
  printf("T (encoded as integer list): ");
  for(i = 1; i < list[0]; i++)
    printf("%d ", list[i]);
  printf("\n");

  newtree = decode(list);
  printf("T' (decoded from int list):  ");
  bt_print_preorder(newtree);
  printf("\n\n");


  // Free memory
  bt_node_delete(tree);
  bt_node_delete(newtree);
  free(list);
  return 0;
}

Saved this as encode.c then compiled and executed. This program uses the example tree you provided, and I've tested it on a few others successfully.

$ gcc -Wall -lm -o encode encode.c
$ ./encode 
T (traversed in pre-order):  5 3 2 2 9 9 1 
T (encoded as integer list): 5 3 0 2 2 9 0 9 0 0 1 0 0 0 
T' (decoded from int list):  5 3 2 2 9 9 1

Answer 6

My code encodes the tree in a preorder traversal, each leaf in two ints (its data followed by 0) and each internal node in one int (its data followed by its left child, then its right). For a complete binary tree (as you define it) with n nodes, n must be odd, and there are (n+1)/2 leaves and (n-1)/2 internal nodes, so that's 3n/2+1/2 integers for the encoding.

warning: untested, just typed it in.

struct node {
  int data;
  struct node *left, *right;
};

void encodeInternal(struct node *root, vector<int> *buf) {
  buf->push_back(root->data);
  if (root->left) {
    encodeInternal(root->left, buf);
    encodeInternal(root->right, buf);
  } else {
    buf->push_back(0);
  }
}
int *encode(struct node *root) {
  vector<int> buf;
  encodeInternal(root, &buf);
  return &buf[0];
}

struct decodeResult {
  int encoded_size;
  struct node *n;
}
struct decodeResult decodeInternal(int *array) {
  struct node *n = (struct node*)malloc(sizeof(struct node));
  n->data = array[0];
  if (array[1] == 0) {
    n->left = n->right = NULL;
    return (decodeResult){2, n};
  } else {
    decodeResult L = decodeInternal(array + 1);
    decodeResult R = decodeInternal(array + 1 + L.encoded_size);
    n->left = L.n;
    n->right = R.n;
    return (decodeResult){1 + L.encoded_size + R.encoded_size, n};
  }
}
struct node *decode(int *array) {
  return decodeInternal(array).n;
}

Answer 7

Here's my try.  It stores the tree in an array of size 2**depth+1.  It uses a[0] to hold the size, and a[size] to hold the index of the first "empty node" it encounters in a depth-first traversal.  (An empty node is the place where a child would be stored if the parent had one).  Each empty node holds the index of the next empty node that will be encountered.

This scheme avoids reserving bits to mark the presense children, so each node can use the full integer range.  It also allows unbalanced trees - a parent can have only one child.

output:

empty tree:  [0]
head node only:  [2,5,0]
example tree: [16,5,3,2,5,14,2,1,0,0, 0,0,9,9,15,0,4];

The Encoder:

//utility
 int findDepth(Node* n) {
    int l = 0 ,r = 0;
    if (n) {
       l = 1 + findDepth(n->left);
       r = 1 + findDepth(n->right);
    }
    return ( l > r ) ? l : r;
 }

//Encode Function
 int* encodeTree(Node* head) {
    int* out;
    int depth = findDepth(head);
    int size = depth>0;
    while (depth--) size*=2;
    out = calloc(size+1,sizeof(int));
    out[0]=size;
    encodeNode(head, out,1, out+size);
    return out;
 }

 void encodeNode(Node* n, int* a, int idx, int* pEmpty) {
    if (n) {
       a[idx]=n->data;
       encodeNode(n->left,a,idx*2,pEmpty);
       encodeNode(n->right,a,idx*2+1,pEmpty);
    }
    else if (idx<a[0]) {
       *pEmpty = idx;
       pEmpty = a+idx;
    }
 }

The Decoder:

 //Decode Function
 Node* decodeArray(int* a) {
    return (a[0]) ?  decodeNode(a,1,a+a[0]) : NULL;
 }

 Node* decodeNode(int* a, int idx, int* pEmpty) {
    Node* n = NULL;
    if (idx== *pEmpty)
       *pEmpty=a[idx];
    else {
       n = calloc(1,sizeof(Node));
       n->data = a[idx];
       if (idx*2<a[0]) {
          n->left = decodeNode(a, idx*2, pEmpty);
          n->right = decodeNode(a, idx*2+1, pEmpty);
       }
    }
    return n;
 }

---

(thanks @daniel sobral for fixing the formatting)

Answer 8

Scala:

trait Node {
  def encode (): Array[Int]
}

case object Node {
  def decode (a: Array[Int]): InnerNode = {
    if (a.length == 1) InnerNode (a(0)) else {
      val r = InnerNode (a(1)) 
      val l = decode (a.tail.tail) 
      InnerNode (a(0), l, r) 
    }
  }
}

case object Leaf extends Node {
  def encode (): Array[Int] = Array.empty
}

case class InnerNode (val data: Int, var l: Node=Leaf, var r: Node=Leaf) extends Node {
  def encode (): Array[Int] = Array (data) ++ r.encode () ++ l.encode () 
}

object BinTreeTest extends App {
  println (Node.decode (Array (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)).encode.mkString (", "))
}

This is an approach which uses deprecated syntax, but compiles without error in Scala 2.9.1 . It generates a Tree and decodes every encoded Tree to the same Array as used for encoding. Maybe I get somehow rid of the deprecated warnings today.

Wow - that was a simple one. First idea worked immediately.