A search tree is an organisation of a search space into a tree structure. In some cases this is because the problem consists of states and moves so there is a natural tree structure with the start state as root and each possible move as a branch. In other cases where there is a set of parameters, the root may be the state with no parameters defined, and each branch fixing the parameters in order; in such cases the order in which the paramters are fixed can substantially affect the efficiency of the search.
Also known as: tree search
Used in glossary entries: search space
Magic square – search tree of potential solutions.