Arranging strings alphabetically in binary tree

Question

I am constructing a binary tree consisting of words from a sample paragraph, sorted alphabetically. So far, I have implemented all of the basic "behind the scenes" work to define the binary tree (constructors, methods), and I am now working on adding elements (words) to the tree.
Every word has had its non-alphanumeric characters removed and every letter in the word is converted to lowercase. I am wondering how I could enter words into the tree alphabetically? All I have done with binary trees have to do with numbers, so I am not sure what to do in this case. (I was thinking of something to do with ASCII values?)

"Any assistance is appreciated!" - assistance with what? I don't see any code... — Mitch Wheat
– Mitch Wheat, Commented Apr 9, 2012 at 1:53
I'm asking about a general algorithm on how to do this. I haven't coded anything yet, I'm still in the problem solving stages. — lollercopter
– lollercopter, Commented Apr 9, 2012 at 1:57
@lollercopter You say you've done this with numbers.. nothing changes with Strings. Your comparison is now alphabetical is all.. check stackoverflow.com/questions/6203411/… for coming up with a comparison function. — Aidanc
– Aidanc, Commented Apr 9, 2012 at 2:00

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:16:44Z

2

You say you've done this with numbers before.

Nothing has really changed with your new tree.

You can think of an alphabetical comparison as just a way of giving something a precedence ranking over something else.

So, think of these strings as being a number, the smaller the number, the lower level in the tree the string will occupy. You're simply making your tree sort by smallest numbers first. A is smaller than B, B is smaller than C and so on.

Check out this related question for coming up with a comparison function to give you the "numbers" you're looking for.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:16

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 9, 2012 at 2:07

Aidanc

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Hot Licks · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-09 02:04:40Z

0

You don't enter stuff into a binary tree "alphabetically", you simply enter stuff into the tree. The tree does the sorting. (Keep in mind that a character string is just a sequence of numbers.)

answered Apr 9, 2012 at 2:04

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