A red-black tree implementation in c.
The library has an rbtree_t type that describes the red-black tree as a whole. This structure is created with the rbtree_new() function. Once a tree is created with rbtree_new(), nodes can be added using the rbtree_insert() function. The tree can be searched with rbtree_lookup(). The minimum and maximum keys can be found with rbtree_minimum() and rbtree_maximum(). A node can be deleted with the rbtree_delete_node() function. The tree can be traversed with the rbtree_traverse_ascending() and rbtree_traverse_descending() functions, which call a specified callback for each node in ascending or descending (by key) order. Subtrees can be removed from the tree with the rbtree_delete() function. Once the application code is finished with a tree, it can be freed with the rbtree_free() function.
See main.c for usage of the library. All global declarations are in rbtree.h.
void rbtree_delete(rbtree_t *tree, rbtree_node_t *node)
Delete the entire sub-tree structure rooted at node. If node is NULL, the entire red-black tree is deallocated and the rbtree_t structure itself is deallocated. The specified del_func is called for each node prior to its deletion (assuming a non-NULL del_func was given).
void rbtree_delete_node(rbtree_t *tree, rbtree_node_t *node)
Delete a node from the tree. The del_func, if not NULL, will be called with the given node before the node itself is deleted.
void rbtree_free(rbtree_t *tree)
Delete all nodes in the given tree and frees memory allocated to the tree structure.
char **rbtree_get_keys(rbtree_t *tree)
Retrieves a NULL terminated array of pointers to the keys for the given rbtree_t.
rbtree_node_t *rbtree_insert(rbtree_t *tree, void *key)
Insert a new node with the given key into the tree. The cmp_func will be called to compare the given key with the keys of other nodes in order to determine where the node should be inserted. If a node with this key is already present in the tree, no new node is created and the pointer to that node is returned.
rbtree_node_t *rbtree_lookup(rbtree_t *tree, void *key)
Look up a node with the given key. If the node with a matching key is found, a pointer to it is returned to the caller. The cmp_func will be used to find the key in the tree. If the key is not found in the tree, NULL is returned.
rbtree_node_t *rbtree_maximum(rbtree_t *tree, rbtree_node_t *subtree)
Return the node with the key value with the highest ordinality rooted in the subtree. If the tree is empty, NULL is returned. If subtree is NULL, the root of the red-black tree is used as the starting subtree.
rbtree_node_t *rbtree_minimum(rbtree_t *tree, rbtree_node_t *subtree)
Return the node with the key value with the lowest ordinality rooted in the subtree. If the tree is empty, NULL is returned. If subtree is NULL, the root of the red-black tree is used as the starting subtree.
rbtree_t *rbtree_new(rbtree_key_compare_func_t cmp_func, rbtree_node_delete_func_t del_func)
Create a new red-black tree. The cmp_func is a required function that compares two key values and returns -1, if a is less than b, 0 if the two compared keys are equal, and 1 if a is greater than b. The del_func is an optional function that is called with a node just before it is deleted. This gives the caller an opportunity to delete memory allocated for the key and/or data belonging to the node.
void rbtree_traverse_ascending(rbtree_t *tree, rbtree_node_t *subtree, rbtree_traverse_func_t cb)
Traverse a subtree in order from lowest ordinal key to highest ordinal key If subtree is NULL, then the traversal is across the entire tree. The specified callback function is called for every node visited, unless it is NULL, in which case this function is less than useful.
void rbtree_traverse_descending(rbtree_t *tree, rbtree_node_t *subtree, rbtree_traverse_func_t cb)
Traverse a subtree in order from highest ordinal key to lowest ordinal key. If subtree is NULL, then the traversal is across the entire tree. The specified callback function is called for every node visited, unless it is NULL, in which case this function is less than useful.
typedef struct rbtree_node_t {
struct rbtree_node_t *parent;
struct rbtree_node_t *left;
struct rbtree_node_t *right;
uint32_t flags;
void *key;
void *data;
} rbtree_node_t
A red-black tree node structure. The data field is not referenced by the rbtree code in any way. The parent, left and right fields should not be altered by the application. The key field is set and used by the rbtree code internally, but it is the application's responsibility to free the key field in the node_delete_func_t that is called just prior to a node being deleted (if necessary). The flags field is used to track the "color" of the node. Only the most significant bit of flags is used internally, the other bits are not touched by any of the rbtree code, so they can be used as needed by the application. There are macros in rbtree.h to help in accessing the node color and the user flags.
typedef int (*rbtree_key_compare_func_t)(void *a, void *b)
A function used to compare rbtree_node_t node keys. This function is required for properly ordering the nodes.
It should return a value less than 0 if a is less than b, 0 if a == b or greater than 0 if a > b.
typedef void (*rbtree_node_delete_func_t)(rbtree_node_t *node)
A function that will receive a node just before it is deleted. This gives the owner the opportunity to free the key and data in the node, if necessary. If no memory or other cleanup needs to be done upon deletion of the node, this can be NULL.
typedef void (*rbtree_traverse_func_t)(rbtree_node_t *node)
A function to call for each node visited during a traversal.
typedef struct rbtree_t {
rbtree_node_t *root;
rbtree_key_compare_func_t cmp_func;
rbtree_node_delete_func_t del_func;
rbtree_node_t nil_node;
unsigned long int node_count;
} rbtree_t;
A red-black tree. This structure tracks the tree root (which will change as nodes are added), the key comparison and node delete functions and keeps a special nil_node that is used internally for tree maintenance. node_count keeps an accurate count of the number of nodes in the tree as nodes are inserted and deleted.
#define RBTREE_COLOR_MASK
#define RBTREE_USER_MASK
#define RBTREE_COLOR_BLACK
#define RBTREE_COLOR_RED
Flags for tracking the color of a node. The high-order bit of the flags field is used for color tracking. The remaining bits can be used by the application for whatever it wants and won't be modified by the rbtree code. node->flags & RBTREE_COLOR_MASK gives the node color, while node->flags & RBTREE_USER_MASK gives the user part of the flags for the node.
#define RBTREE_COLOR(n)
#define RBTREE_COLOR_IS_BLACK(n)
#define RBTREE_COLOR_IS_RED(n)
#define RBTREE_SET_BLACK(n)
#define RBTREE_SET_RED(n)
#define RBTREE_SET_USER(n, d)
#define RBTREE_GET_USER(n)
These are macros for working with the flags field. RBTREE_COLOR(n) returns the color of node n. RBTREE_COLOR_IS_BLACK(n) and RBTREE_COLOR_IS_RED(n) return whether node n is black or red, respectively. RBTREE_SET_BLACK(n) and RBTREE_SET_RED(n) set node n to either black or red,
respectively, without modifying the user bits of flags. RBTREE_SET_USER(n, d) will set the user portion of the flags belonging to node n to d, without modifying the color. The most significant bit of d (bit 31) is truncated and replaced with the current color of node n. Finally, RBTREE_GET_USER(n) will retrieve the user data without the color bit.
The test programs read in a list of 263,533 words from a file named word.txt. These words are used as keys for an rbtree. This list was obtained from this website.
- Compile/link with -lto to remove unused functions from the final executable.