Prüfer Codes of Labeled Trees

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In 1889, Cayley proved that there are labeled trees on nodes. In 1918, Prüfer found a method for constructing each tree.

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Consider the tree with code {2, 8, 9, 4, 7, 7, 2} that is given as the default tree in this Demonstration. The first digit of the Prüfer code is the branch that has the smallest isolated number. Pruning that branch gives a new tree, and the process repeats, as shown in the Details.

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Contributed by: Ed Pegg Jr (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA


Snapshots


Details

The smallest non-branch number is 1. Cut it from 2. The smallest non-branch number is 3. Cut it from 8. The smallest non-branch number is 5. Cut it from 9. The smallest non-branch number is 6. Cut it from 4. The smallest non-branch number is 4. Cut it from 7. The smallest non-branch number is 8. Cut it from 7. The smallest non-branch number is 7. Cut it from 2.



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