C++ Program to Implement Ternary Tree

A ternary tree is a type of tree data structure in which each node can have at most three children. In this article, we will learn how to implement a ternary tree in C++ using basic class structures and pointers.

What is Ternary Tree?

A ternary tree is a tree in which each node has up to three children, that is left, middle, and right. It is same as a binary tree, but with an extra child node for each node. Each node in a ternary tree stores a data value and pointers to its three child nodes.

For example, a node in a ternary tree will be defined by:

struct Node { int data; Node* left; Node* middle; Node* right; };

Implementing Ternary Tree

To implement a ternary tree, we define a class or structure for nodes and use recursive logic for inserting and traversing. Below are some points about its structure and operation:

Structure: Each node contains a data value and three pointers for left, middle, and right child.
Operations: Insert nodes and perform traversal operation (preorder, inorder, or postorder).

Steps to Implement Ternary Tree in C++

Following are steps/algorithm to implement ternary tree in C++:

Create a structure or class for tree nodes.
Each node should have three pointers: left, middle, and right.
Insert values into the tree using arrow operator (->) for pointers.
Use a preorder traversal to display values of tree.
Use a main function to create nodes and demonstrate traversal.

C++ Program to Implement Ternary Tree

In the below code, we have implemented a simple ternary tree and traversed it using preorder traversal:

#include <iostream> using namespace std; // Define a node of the ternary tree struct Node { int data; Node* left; Node* middle; Node* right; Node(int val) { data = val; left = middle = right = nullptr; } }; // Preorder traversal of ternary tree void preorder(Node* root) { if (root == nullptr) return; cout << root->data << " "; preorder(root->left); preorder(root->middle); preorder(root->right); } int main() { // Creating root and child nodes Node* root = new Node(1); root->left = new Node(2); root->middle = new Node(3); root->right = new Node(4); root->left->left = new Node(5); root->middle->middle = new Node(6); root->right->right = new Node(7); cout << "Preorder Traversal: "; preorder(root); return 0; }

The output of above code will be: