Sökträdet

Sökträdet is a term used in Swedish computer science to describe a tree-based data structure designed to organize and explore possible search paths or states. The name derives from sök, meaning "to search," and träd, meaning "tree." In a sökträdet, nodes represent partial solutions or states, and edges correspond to decisions or actions that extend the current path. The root typically denotes the initial state, while leaf nodes represent complete solutions or terminal states. Metadata such as path cost, heuristic estimates, or depth may be stored at nodes to guide exploration.

Operations on a sökträdet usually include expanding a node to generate successor states, inserting new paths, and retrieving nodes by a prefix or by cost. Pruning rules can be applied to discard branches that cannot lead to better solutions, improving efficiency. The structure is often used in backtracking, planning, and AI search where the search space can be naturally organized as a tree.

Variants and related structures include tries, decision trees, and general search trees used in graph search algorithms. While a sökträdet shares characteristics with these concepts, it emphasizes the combined use of state representation and search-oriented pruning within a tree framework rather than a flattened graph or purely lexical structure.

Applications of the sökträdet concept appear in puzzle solving, game planning, route finding, and declarative programming contexts where a structured exploration of possibilities is advantageous. See also: search algorithm, binary search tree, trie, decision tree.