The base class library in .NET has some excellent data structures for collections (List, Queue, Stack, Dictionary), but oddly enough it does not contain any data structures for binary trees. This is a terribly useful structure for certain algorithms, such as those that take advantage of different traversal paths. I’m looking for a correctly written, free implementation.
Am I simply blind, and not finding it… is it buried somewhere in the BCL? If not, can someone recommend a free or open-source C#/.NET library for binary trees? Preferably one that employs generics.
EDIT: To clarify what I’m looking for. I’m not interested in ordered dictionary collections that internally use a tree. I’m actually interested in a binary tree – one that exposes its structure so that you can do things like extract subtrees, or perform post-fix traversal on the nodes. Ideally such a class could be extended to provide the behaviors of specialized trees (ie. Red/Black, AVL, Balanced, etc).
You’re right, there’s nothing in the BCL. I suspect this is because the choice of whether to use a tree is typically an implementation detail and is otherwise an unconventional way to access data. That is, you don’t say, “binary-search-for element #37”; instead, you say, “get me element #37”.
But have you taken a look at C5? It’s super-handy and they have several tree implementations (1, 2, 3).