A.4 NETWORK GRAPHS
By definition, tree structures contain no cycles. This makes trees useful for data storage and retrieval, a simple task in terms of computational complexity. Harder problems require more complex structures. Consider, for example, the routing problem that we presented in Section A.2, where we need to find a return path from Chicago to New York. We never said anything about finding the shortest path—only that it was easiest to simply retrace our steps. Finding the shortest path, or an optimal path, requires a different kind of data structure, one that allows cycles.
An n-ary tree can be changed into a more general network graph by allowing leaf nodes to point to each other. But now we have to allow for the fact that it is possible ...
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