Difference Between B-tree and Binary tree

Differences Server Side Programming Programming

There are two types of non-linear data structures namely, B-Tree and Binary Tree. These two terms sound similar but they are absolutely different from each other. The most basic difference between a B-Tree and a Binary Tree is that a B-Tree is used for data storage on a disk, whereas a Binary Tree is used for data storage in RAM.

Read this article to learn more about B-tree and Binary Tree and how they are different from each other.

What is a B-Tree?

B-Tree, also called Balanced Sort Tree, is a type of balanced M-way tree. In a B-tree, the nodes are arranged on the basis of "inorder" traversal mode.

A B-Tree has the space complexity equal to O(n), and it has the insertion and deletion time complexity equal to O(log n). Each node of a BTree can have a maximum M number of children. Thus, the height of a B-tree is given by logM N, where M is the order of tree and N is the number of nodes. This is the essential constraint in a B-Tree.

The B-Tree is used when data is stored in a disk because it reduces the data access time by decreasing the height of a tree and increasing the number of branches in a node.

What is a Binary Tree?

A Binary Tree is a tree structure that has maximum of two pointers for its child nodes. In a binary tree, the highest degree of a node can be 2. This is the essential constraint in a binary tree. The height of a binary tree is given by log2 N.

For a binary tree, there can be three types of traversal techniques namely, "inorder", "preorder", or "postorder". Also, there are several types of binary tree present namely, strictly binary tree, complete binary tree, extended binary tree, etc.

Binary tree operations are used when data is stored in the RAM. It is also used in the code optimization techniques.

Now, let us discuss the differences between B-Tree and Binary Tree in detail.

Difference between B-tree and Binary tree

The following table highlights all the major differences between B-Tree and Binary Tree −

S.No.	B-tree	Binary tree
1.	Here, a node can have a maximum of 'M'(where 'M' is the order of the tree) child nodes.	Here, a node can have maximum two child nodes (they are also known as sub-trees).
2.	It is also known as a sorted tree.	It is not a sorted tree.
3.	The nodes are present in 'inorder' traversal mode.	It can be sorted in inorder, preorder or postorder traversal.
4.	It has a height of logM N (where 'M' is the order of tree and N is the number of nodes).	It has a height of log2 N (base 2, log N, where N is the number of nodes).
5.	Operations are performed on a B-Tree when data is loaded to the disk.	Binary tree operations are used when data is loaded to the RAM (quicker).
6.	It is used in database management system to index code.	Its applications include usage in Huffman coding.
7.	It can also be used to insert the data or key in a B-tree.	It is also used in code optimization methods.
8.	This is a big procedure in comparison to operations on a binary tree.	Data insertion is relatively easier in comparison to B-Tree.

Conclusion

The most significant difference that you should note here is that a B-Tree has nodes which are present in 'inorder' traversal mode, while a Binary Tree has nodes that can be sorted in inorder, preorder, or postorder traversal mode.