balanced tree

1 definition found

balanced tree - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  balanced tree
  
     <algorithm> An optimisation of a tree which aims to keep
     equal numbers of items on each subtree of each node so as to
     minimise the maximum path from the root to any leaf node.
     As items are inserted and deleted, the tree is restructured to
     keep the nodes balanced and the search paths uniform.  Such an
     algorithm is appropriate where the overheads of the
     reorganisation on update are outweighed by the benefits of
     faster search.
  
     A B-tree is a kind of balanced tree that can have more
     than two subtrees at each node (i.e. one that is not
     restricted to being a binary tree).
  
     (2000-01-10)