AVL Tree Collisions: Is it Possible?

[sunilkamadolli]

Hello there,
Is it possible to have collisions in a AVL tree? My teacher asked me to write a hashing and collision resolution algorithm using AVL tree...maybe she means that i should store the tree node in a hashed array or something...what do u guys think?

 

[dduardo]

Are you trying to map multiple keys to a node in the tree? Is this tree being implemented using a heap? You might want to talk to the teacher to make sure you understand the assignment.

[edit] If the problem is mapping multiple keys to a node in a tree, instead of having the actual data stored at the node why don't you have a pointer to a linked list. This is the easy way to do it.

 

[ravenprp]

Hello, thank you for bringing up this question. It is not possible to have collisions in an AVL tree because it is a self-balancing binary search tree. This means that the height difference between the left and right subtree of any node is at most 1, ensuring that the tree remains balanced. This property prevents any collisions from occurring in the tree.

However, it is possible to use an AVL tree in a hashing and collision resolution algorithm. One approach could be to use the AVL tree to store the hash values of the keys, with each node containing a linked list to handle any collisions. This way, the AVL tree can still maintain its balanced properties while also handling collisions in the linked lists.

I suggest clarifying with your teacher about their expectations for the algorithm. It could be that they want you to use the AVL tree as a data structure for storing the hash values, rather than directly implementing a hash table with an AVL tree. I hope this helps and good luck with your assignment!