Binary Search tree inside Binary Search tree

Question

I have a homework which ask from me to create a struct of binary search tree where its node of the binary search tree is another binary search tree. The first BST has the Surnames of Students and the other one has the first names and id. Also if someone has the same surname with another student I must not create another "surname" node but I have to create inside the existing "surname" node another "first name and Id" node. To be more specific:

typedef struct nameANDid{ //name and id nodes
    char first[20];
    int ID;
    struct nameANDid *nleft;
    struct nameANDid *nright;
}yohoho;
typedef struct node{  //surname nodes
   char last[20];  
   struct nameANDid yohoho;  
   struct node *left;
   struct node *right;
}node;

My main problem is how to create a different nameANDid node for each firstname I found because with the following code I create 2 BST one for the surnames and another for the names but I would like to be like for example: If I have these students

 Stallone Sylvester 11111111
 Stallone Noah      22222222
 Norris   Chuck     33333333
 Hogan    Hulk      44444444
 Hogan    Daniel    55555555

I want to store them like this:.........

 Stallone Sylvester 11111111
          Noah      22222222
 Norris   Chuck     33333333
 Hogan    Hulk      44444444
          Daniel    55555555

Instead of this I take something like:...........

 Stallone  Sylvester 11111111.
           Noah      22222222 
           Chuck     33333333
           Hulk      44444444 
           Daniel    55555555

 Norris  Sylvester 11111111.
           Noah      22222222 
           Chuck     33333333
           Hulk      44444444 
           Daniel    55555555
 Hogan    Sylvester 11111111.
           Noah      22222222 
           Chuck     33333333
           Hulk      44444444 
           Daniel    55555555

I will put here some functions in order to be more specific

The load function loads the names from a txt document.

void loadData(struct node *temp){      
int i;
FILE *fp;
fp=fopen(FILENAME,"r");
if (fp == NULL) printf("File does not exist\n");
for (i=0; i<5; i++){                
    fscanf(fp,"%s",&temp->last);
    fscanf(fp,"%s",&temp->yohoho.first);
    fscanf(fp,"%d",&temp->yohoho.ID);                 
    top=add_node(top,temp);  //this function create a surname node        
    }        
fclose(fp);     
    printf("\n\nFile loaded\n");  
}

where

        struct node temp;//just  a node pointer
        struct node *top=NULL; //shows the top of the tree

The addnode function is : ...

      struct node * add_node (struct node *top, struct node *temp){  
           struct node *newNode;  
           if (top == NULL){    
           newNode=(struct node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));
           temp->left=NULL;
           temp->right=NULL;     
           if (memcpy(newNode,temp,sizeof(struct node)) == NULL){
               printf("Node addition failed\n");
               return NULL;}
           else {             
               topname=add_node_nameANDid(topname,&temp->yohoho); //Call the add_node_nameANDid to create a new name node in the other tree                           
               return newNode;}
            }
           else {   
               if (stricmp(temp->last,top->last) < 0){ //Insert node surname left
                     top->left=add_node(top->left,temp);}
               else if (stricmp(temp->last,top->last) == 0){         
                     topname=add_node_nameANDid(topname,&temp->yohoho);  //Call the add_node_nameANDid to create a new name node in the other tree   if i have the same surname        
               }
               else {
                     top->right=add_node(top->right,temp);           
               }
               return top;
             } 
             return NULL;
         }

And the add_node_nameANDid() function is like the previous function but it has some variables changed:

      struct nameANDid * add_node_nameANDid (struct nameANDid *topname, struct nameANDid *temp2){
        struct nameANDid *newNode_nameANDid;     
        if (topname == NULL){ 
            newNode_nameANDid=(struct nameANDid *)malloc(sizeof(struct nameANDid));
            temp2->nleft=NULL;
            temp2->nright=NULL;
            if (memcpy(newNode_nameANDid,temp2,sizeof(struct nameANDid)) == NULL){
                   printf("Node addition failed\n");
                   return NULL;}
            else {                 
                   return newNode_nameANDid;}
            }
        else {   
             if (stricmp(temp2->first,topname->first) <= 0){       
                  topname->nleft=add_node_nameANDid(topname->nleft,temp2);}
        else {         
                  topname->nright=add_node_nameANDid(topname->nright,temp2);}  
        return topname;
        } 
     return NULL;
    }

Sorry for the huge source code that I just upload but it would be very difficult to explain without this.

I think that I have two problems but I don't have the knowledge to solve them.

FIRST: I have to create different firstname BST for each surname node and I think that I don't do that but I don't know how to do that...

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I have given an example implementation of this below, commented to explain how I approached this. You should be able to use my ideas to modify the way your code works. Note that its not a perfect implementation, off the top of my head, I can see the following problems.

1. Its recursive, which means the depth of tree it can handle is limited by the size of the stack on the target machine. There are two ways you can attack this, either:
   1. Make it iterative. That is, use for/while loops instead of functions calling themselves - this would allow for as many nodes as your machines memory can handle (fixes the problem).
   2. Update add_name_to_tree to handle insertions for a balanced binary tree (but this just helps the issue, the stack limit is still there).
2. It can't handle two people with exactly the same name, but different id's - after the first person is added to the tree, all subsequent people of the same name are ignored.

I will leave it as an exercise for you to handle these situations.

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

/* a single struct type for storing all tree elements */
typedef struct _node
{
    char name[50];
    int id;
    struct _node *subname;
    struct _node *left;
    struct _node *right;
} node;

/* creates a new node structure for the specified name and id */
node *create_node(const char *name, int id)
{
    node *newNode = (node*)malloc(sizeof(node));
    memset(newNode, 0, sizeof(*newNode));

    newNode->id = id;
    strncpy(newNode->name, name, sizeof(newNode->name));

    return newNode;
}

/* inserts the name/id pair into the tree specified by root.
   note that root is passed as a pointer to a pointer, so that
   it can accept NULL if no tree exists yet, and return to the 
   caller the node the node that contains the name.  Note that
   id is ignored if "name" already exists, i'll leave it as an
   excersice for you to handle situations with the same name
   with multiple id's */
node *add_name_to_tree(node **root, const char *name, int id)
{
    if (*root == NULL)
    {
        *root = create_node(name, id);
        return *root;
    }

    const int cmp = strcmp(name, (*root)->name);

    if (cmp < 0)
    {
        return add_name_to_tree(&(*root)->left, name, id);
    }
    else if (cmp > 0)
    {
        return add_name_to_tree(&(*root)->right, name, id);
    }
    else
    {
        return *root;
    }
}

/* adds the specified first/last name and id combo to the tree
   specified by root */
node *add_name(node *root, const char *first, const char *last, int id)
{
    /* this call will return the node that holds the last name,
       we can then use its "subname" tree root to insert the first name */
    node *last_node = add_name_to_tree(&root, last, 0);

    /* use the "subname" of the node that stores the last name as the 
       root of the tree that stores first names */
    add_name_to_tree(&last_node->subname, first, id);
    return root;
}

/* just to demonstrate why I use the same node type for first/last names,
   its because it allows you to support any number of names, see
   below - an add function that adds people with a middle name to the tree
   */
node *add_with_middle_name(node *root, const char *first, 
                           const char *middle, const char *last, int id)
{
    node *last_node = add_name_to_tree(&root, last, 0);
    node *mid_node = add_name_to_tree(&last_node->subname, middle, 0);
    add_name_to_tree(&mid_node->subname, first, id);
    return root;
}

/* recursively traverse the name tree, printing out the names */
void print_names(node *names, int level)
{
    const int indent = 10;

    if (names == NULL)
    {
        printf("\n");
    }

    if (names->left)
    {
        print_names(names->left, level);
    }

    if (names->subname)
    {
        printf("%*c %s \n", (indent * level), ' ', names->name);
        print_names(names->subname, level + 1);
        printf("\n");
    }
    else
    {
        printf("%*c %-*s %d\n", 
               (indent * level), ' ', 
               indent, names->name, names->id);
    }

    if (names->right)
    {
        print_names(names->right, level);
    }
}

int main()
{
    node *names = NULL;

    names = add_name(names, "Sylvester", "Stallone", 11111111);
    names = add_name(names, "Noah", "Stallone", 22222222);
    names = add_name(names, "Chuck", "Norris", 33333333);
    names = add_name(names, "Hulk", "Hogan", 44444444);
    names = add_name(names, "Daniel", "Hogan", 55555555);

    names = add_with_middle_name(names, "Peter", "Michael", 
                                 "Zachson", 66666666);

    print_names(names, 0);

    return 0;
}