{"id":9720,"date":"2014-05-29T13:06:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T13:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/root-node\/"},"modified":"2014-05-29T13:06:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T13:06:16","slug":"root-node","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node","title":{"rendered":"Root Node"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_root_node_mean\">What Does Root Node Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A root node is either the topmost or the bottom node in a tree data structure, depending on how the tree is represented visually.<\/p>\n<p> The root node may be considered the top if the visual representation is top-down or the bottom if it is bottom-up. The analogy is that the tree starts at the roots and then goes up to its crown, so the first node is considered the root. \n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_root_node\">Techopedia Explains Root Node<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In a tree data structure, the root node is the very first or parent node. Generally, nodes may have parent and children nodes, but because the root note is the first node, it only has children nodes.<\/p>\n<p> A root node is just like any node, in that it is part of a data structure which consists of one or more fields with links to other nodes and contains a data field; it simply happens to be the first node. In this regard, any node can be a root node in relation to itself and its children if that section of the tree is objectively selected. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Root Node Mean? A root node is either the topmost or the bottom node in a tree data structure, depending on how the tree is represented visually. The root node may be considered the top if the visual representation is top-down or the bottom if it is bottom-up. The analogy is that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[227,256],"class_list":["post-9720","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-data-management","definitioncat-emerging-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Root Node? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Root Node and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Root Node\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Root Node and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Root Node\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-29T13:06:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node\"},\"wordCount\":186,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/21839\/root-node\",\"name\":\"What is a Root Node? 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