Red-Black Binary Search Trees

Overview

Red-Black BSTs are a type of self-balancing binary search tree. Each node stores an extra bit representing "color" ("red" or "black"), which ensures the tree remains approximately balanced during insertions and deletions.

Key Properties

• Each node is either red or black.
• The root is always black.
• All leaves (NIL nodes) are black.
• If a node is red, then both its children are black.
• Every path from a given node to any of its descendant NIL nodes has the same number of black nodes.

Why Use Red-Black Trees?

Red-Black Trees provide faster insertion and deletion operations compared to other BSTs, making them valuable for high-performance search algorithms.

Diagram of a Red-Black Tree

Learn More

For more detailed information about Red-Black Trees, visit Wikipedia's Red-Black Tree Article.