README.md

Trie (aka. Prefix Tree)

An C++ implementation of a trie with some interesting features:

• Follows the same conventions as that of the associative containers in the STL.
  • Note: It does not currently have all of the functionality implemented.
• Allow for any sequence container to be used as the key, not just strings.
• Support for propogation inserts:
  • Non-overwriting: Insert the value on every free node along the path.
  • Overwriting: Insert the value on every node along the path.
• Special support for char key_type.
  • const char* sequences are handled through an overload, only present when char is the key.
  • Accomplished with the use of std::enable_if.

Template Parameters

With the standard associative containers, the first template argument is the key_type and the second is the mapped_type, together forming value_type which is defined as std::pair<key_type, mapped_type>, which you would pass to functions such as insert(). With a trie, since they are especially designed for indexing on sequences of elements, it is an unnecessary restriction to require only one type of sequence be used for indexing, so as a result, the key_type of the trie is the type which you wish to use for individual links.

The Usual insert() and find()

As mentioned above, this implementation follows closely in the footsteps of the standard associative contains, only with a few useful additions. As a result of the choice of key_type being only the link to be used between nodes, you can use any sequence to insert values into and retrieve values from the trie. For example, if one was indexing std::strings, the key_type would be char. As a result, any sequence can be used to insert and find values in the trie, even const char* due to the special case being handled with std::enable_if.

Example:

trie<char, int> t;
t.insert(std::make_pair("abc", 1));  // "abc" is of type const char*

std::string key;
std::cin >> key;
auto i = t.find(key);  // We can also use a std::string as a key.

// Usual way of checking for existance of a value.
if (i != std::end(t))
  std::cout << i->first << ": " << i->second << std::end;

After the insert, the trie would look like this:

() --a--> () --b--> () --c--> (1)

A Nice Addition: Range insert() and find()

In addition to be able to use a sequence container to index into the data structure, you are also able to use an iterator range as the index. This allows for much more power if you only want to index a value by part of a range.

trie<char, long int> t;
std::string key = "hello my name is matt";
auto spacePos = std::find(key.begin(), key.end(), ' ');

t.insert(
  std::make_pair(
    std::make_pair(key.begin(), spacePos),
    std::distance(key.begin(), spacePos)
  )
);

// Just to show another sequence being used.
std::vector<char> search{'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'};
std::cout << t.find(search)->second << std::endl;

Propogate Inserts

Another useful feature available is something I call propogate inserts. What these inserts due is place the value being mapped on every node along the path. There are two versions:

propogate_insert

With this version, if a value already exists at a node, it will not modify it. So if you have the following trie:

() --a--> () --b--> (1)

Inserting the pair ("abc", 4) into an empty trie would yield the following:

(4) --a--> (4) --b--> (1) --c--> (4)

propogate_insert_overwrite

This version will overwrite all nodes along the path, so assuming the same starting trie as for propagate_insert, we would end up with the following:

(4) --a--> (4) --b--> (4) --c--> (4)