Updating a Balanced Search Tree in O(1) Rotations

Abstract Olivie has recently introduced the class of ‘half-balanced’ binary search trees, which have O(log n) access time but require only a constant number of single rotations for rebalancing after an insertion or a deletion. In this paper we show that a well-known class of balanced binary trees, the ‘symmetric binary B-trees’ of Bayer, have the same properties. This is not surprising, for Bayer's class and Olivies class contain exactly the same binary trees.