thecodereule / binary_search_tree

combining the power of binary search with linked lists

If you want search to be a separate executable, you will need to:

1. Modify search.c to include a main function that parses command-line arguments.
2. Have a mechanism to build and access the tree from search.c.
3. Compile search.c separately to create its own executable.

However, there is a challenge here: the tree constructed in trees.c exists only in the memory space of the trees executable while it's running and cannot be accessed by a separate search executable after trees has terminated.

To overcome this, you can serialize the tree to a file in trees.c and then read this file and reconstruct the tree in search.c.

Step-by-Step Approach

1. Serialize Tree to File in trees.c

After constructing the tree, you can write it to a file in a pre-order, in-order, or any other traversal method that can be used to reconstruct the tree.

2. Reconstruct Tree in search.c

Read the file and reconstruct the tree in memory before performing the search operation.

3. Implement main in search.c

Implement a main function in search.c to parse the command-line arguments and call the search function with the reconstructed tree and the input number.

4. Compile search.c Separately

Compile search.c separately to create its own executable.

Example

1. Serialize Tree to File in trees.c

void serialize_tree(node *root, FILE *file) {
    if (root == NULL) {
        fprintf(file, "# ");
        return;
    }
    fprintf(file, "%d ", root->number);
    serialize_tree(root->left, file);
    serialize_tree(root->right, file);
}

// In main function of trees.c, after constructing the tree
FILE *file = fopen("tree.txt", "w");
if (file == NULL) {
    return 1; // Handle error
}
serialize_tree(tree, file);
fclose(file);

2. Reconstruct Tree in search.c

node *deserialize_tree(FILE *file) {
    char buffer[10];
    if (fscanf(file, "%s", buffer) != 1) {
        return NULL; // Handle error
    }
    if (buffer[0] == '#') {
        return NULL;
    }
    node *root = malloc(sizeof(node));
    if (root == NULL) {
        return NULL; // Handle error
    }
    root->number = atoi(buffer);
    root->left = deserialize_tree(file);
    root->right = deserialize_tree(file);
    return root;
}

// In main function of search.c, before calling search
FILE *file = fopen("tree.txt", "r");
if (file == NULL) {
    return 1; // Handle error
}
node *tree = deserialize_tree(file);
fclose(file);

3. Implement main in search.c

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    if (argc != 2) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s number\n", argv[0]);
        return 1;
    }
    int number = atoi(argv[1]);
    if (search(tree, number)) {
        printf("%d found in the tree.\n", number);
    } else {
        printf("%d not found in the tree.\n", number);
    }
    return 0;
}

4. Compile search.c Separately

gcc search.c -o search

In this approach, you need to run the trees executable first to construct the tree and serialize it to a file, and then run the search executable to search a number in the serialized tree.