Generic Tree meaning & definition in DSA Last Updated : 05 Apr, 2023 Improve Improve Like Article Like Save Share Report A generic tree (or N-ary Tree) is a type of tree data structure where each node can have at most N number of children where N can be any integer. Example of Generic Tree Characteristics of Generic Tree: Each node can have zero or more child nodes. A node can have N number of children where N can be any integer. Each node has a list of pointers that point to the children. Applications of Generic Tree: It is used in the file system, where each directory is a node and sub-directories are child nodes. A network topology can also be represented as a generic tree where each network device is a node and the connected devices are the children of the node. It is used in XML and JSON files to store the data hierarchically. Advantages of using Generic Tree: It allows efficient searching and retrieval of data, as nodes can be accessed directly by their position in the tree. It can be used to implement various algorithms such as tree traversal, sorting, and searching. It is versatile and can be used in various real-world scenarios. Disadvantages of using a Generic tree: Sometimes its implementation can become very complex, especially for large trees. It requires more memory than other data structures such as arrays and linked lists. It can become unbalanced, with some branches becoming much longer than others, which can lead to inefficient searching and retrieval of data. What else can you read? Introduction to Tree – Data Structure and Algorithm Tutorials Tree meaning in DSA Diameter of a Generic(N-ary) tree Like Article Suggest improvement Previous Next Larger element in n-ary tree Next Adjacency List meaning & definition in DSA Share your thoughts in the comments Add Your Comment Please Login to comment...