What is tries?

Tries (pronounced "tries" or "try") is a tree data structure used for efficient retrieval of keys from a set of strings. It is a type of digital search tree, where each node corresponds to a common prefix of a subset of strings. Each node in a trie stores a character of the string and has a binary flag that denotes whether the node represents the end of a string or not. This makes it a very useful data structure for quick string searching and pattern matching.

Tries allow efficient searching, insertion, and deletion of strings in time proportional to the length of the string being searched, making it highly efficient for large datasets. They are commonly used in data compression algorithms, spell checkers, and search applications. Unlike hash tables, tries can be used to find all words that have a given prefix, and their inherent structure allows for fast traversal and manipulation.

However, tries can become expensive in terms of memory usage for large datasets since every node requires memory. Thus, they may not be suitable for use in memory-constrained environments. Nonetheless, tries remain one of the most effective data structures for searching strings.