👉 Tries, also known as prefix trees or suffix trees, are specialized tree-like data structures used for efficient storage and retrieval of strings. Each node in a trie represents a single character, and paths from the root to any node form a unique string. This makes tries particularly useful for tasks like autocomplete suggestions, spell-checking, and IP routing. When a new string is inserted into a trie, each character of the string creates a new node, with the root node representing an empty string. Tries allow for fast prefix-based searches by traversing down the tree according to the characters of the query string, making them highly efficient for operations involving strings with common prefixes. They can also be extended to support additional functionalities like storing counts of occurrences or even performing arithmetic operations on strings, making them versatile for various applications in computer science.
