GATE Overflow | Data Structures | Test 1 | Question: 28

Question

What would be an appropraite data structure to represent family hierarchy where each node is an individual and there in no requirement to keep "married to" relationship?

• A. Binary Tree
• B. n-ary Tree
• C. Graph
• D. Linked List

Comments

it's graph??

---

how it can be tree??

Answer 1

with binary tree is not possible . cause we cannot represent one hving more than two children.

with n tree not possible . we can not represent sibiling or other kind of relationship that creates cycle.

yes, with graph , it is possible. and it is aprropriate.

with cyclic doubly linked list , it is possible to implement but it takes lot of space for double pointers . it is not appropriate than graph .

so i will go with option c

Comments

sir if married to is present then tree cant do it i think. in that case we use graphs? bcoz wife belongs to some other family.

---

yes..

---

Sir still can’t understand how n-ary tree will be enough to show both siblings and parents relation simultaneously.

In the figures on Pinterest, either it is depicted as single child with all their parents (& no siblings are present), or both mother & father aren’t depicted as a node in tree can have only 1 parent

Answer 2

It is definitely n-ary tree.

Linked List can't represent someone having two children.

Binary tree can't represent someone having three children.

A graph can represent A's child to be the father of B if A and B are siblings. (Visualize it)

An n-ary tree would represent someone having n  number of children, without disrupting the hierarchy.

Option B