 Complete binary tree

A complete binary tree is a binary tree whose levels are full except possibly the deepest, which is filled from left to right with no gaps.^[ref]

Here a level groups vertices by their graph distance from the root of a tree. A binary heap uses this shape to maintain logarithmic height of a binary tree. Completeness differs from the two-children condition of a full binary tree.

For a six-vertex example, give $A$ two children in a rooted tree $B,C$, give $B$ two children in a rooted tree $D,E$, and give $C$ only a left child $F$. The levels have $1,2,3$ vertices, and the last occupies its first three positions, so this is a complete binary tree. It is not a full binary tree, since $C$ has exactly one child. Moving $F$ to the right slot of $C$ preserves $n=6$ and height of a binary tree $2$, but leaves a gap before $F$ and destroys completeness. Merely keeping the deepest vertices near the left side is insufficient; every earlier position must be occupied.

Number positions by the left-to-right level order of breadth-first search, beginning with root position $1$. The children of position $i$ have positions $2i$ and $2i+1$. A nonempty complete binary tree occupies exactly positions $1,\dots ,n$, so its height of a binary tree is $\lfloor {\log }_{2}n\rfloor$: positions $2^h,\dots ,2^{h+1}-1$ form level $h$. This consecutive occupancy explains the compact array representation of a binary heap, while heap order is a separate condition on values. Neither completeness nor the binary tree definition supplies the binary search tree ordering rule.