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Knowing your roots: object-oriented binary search trees revisited

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Published:01 December 1996Publication History
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Abstract

By applying object-oriented design to the definition of a binary search tree, Berman and Duvall [1] designed a data structure comprised of three classes: (i) an Emptybst class to model empty binary search trees, (ii) a NonEmptybst class to model non-empty binary search trees, and (iii) a bst base class for common attributes of Emptybst and NonEmptybst objects. That paper noted the problem of inserting new values into such a structure: since insertions occur at an Emptybst object, an Emptybst would have to "turn into" a NonEmptybst; a behavior beyond the capabilities of the classes in most languages.This paper presents three C++ solutions to the insertion problem in their order of development. The first solution uses a procedural programming technique, with the second and third solutions shifting to a more object-oriented approach. This chronology illustrates the author's ongoing battle to shift from procedural to object-oriented thinking.

References

  1. 1. A. Michael Berman and Robert C. Duvall, Thinking About Binary Trees In An Object-Oriented World, Proceedings of the 27th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 27(1): 185-189, February, 1996. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. 2. Grady Booch, Object Oriented Design, Benjamin/ Cummings, 1991. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. 3. Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language, Addison-Wesley, 1992, pp. 540. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

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  1. Knowing your roots: object-oriented binary search trees revisited

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            cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
            ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 28, Issue 4
            Dec. 1996
            66 pages
            ISSN:0097-8418
            DOI:10.1145/242649
            Issue’s Table of Contents

            Copyright © 1996 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s)

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            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

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            • Published: 1 December 1996

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