Patent ID: 6978271

Claim:
A computer implemented method for continuing a preorder traversal of a binary tree formed by a family of node when a last node visited in a first partial traversal no longer exists in the tree, each node in the family comprising a child pointer, a sibling pointer, and a unique counter value, the method comprising: receiving as input a continuation node and a lineage of the continuation node, the continuation node comprising the last node visited in the first partial traversal; determining an updated continuation node by locating a first node currently existing in the tree included in the lineage of the continuation node having a level higher than any other nodes currently existing in the tree included in the lineage of the continuation node, the updated continuation node comprising the first currently existing node; and continuing the preorder traversal of the tree from the updated continuation node wherein the determining step comprises comparing unique counter values of nodes currently existing in the tree with the continuation node unique counter value.