Prüfer degree formula (${\mathrm{deg}}_T(v)=1+\#\{i:p_i=v\}$)

For a labelled tree with $n\ge 2$ vertices, the vertex degree of label $v$ is one plus the number of occurrences of $v$ in its Prüfer sequence:Each recording of $v$ corresponds to an incident edge removed when a neighbouring leaf of a graph is deleted. Exactly one incident edge remains when $v$ itself is deleted, or when it belongs to the final pair. In particular, $v$ is a leaf of a graph exactly when it never occurs in the Prüfer sequence. The same reasoning applies to each remaining tree and its remaining code. ^[ref]

For $p=(1,3,3,5)$, the occurrence counts in label order are $(1,0,2,0,1,0)$, giving the degree sequence $(2,1,3,1,2,1)$. Its sum is $10=2(6-1)$, as required by the degree-sum formula. More generally, summing the occurrence counts gives $n-2$, so summing the vertex degrees gives $n+(n-2)=2(n-1)$.

For $n\ge 2$ and positive integers $d_1,\dots ,d_n$ with ${\sum }_v{d}_v=2(n-1)$, the number of labelled trees having vertex degree $d_v$ at label $v$ isBy the Prüfer degree formula, this is the multinomial coefficient counting sequences with $d_v-1$ occurrences of each label. If a degree is zero or the sum is wrong, there are no such trees. For the example degree sequence $(2,1,3,1,2,1)$, there are $4!/(1!0!2!0!1!0!)=12$ labelled trees, one for each ordering of the labels $1,3,3,5$. Knowing the vertex degrees thus constrains, but usually does not determine, the tree.