A Fenwick Tree, also known as a Binary Indexed Tree (BIT), is a data structure that efficiently supports dynamic cumulative frequency tables. It allows for both point updates and prefix sum queries in time, making it particularly useful for scenarios where data is frequently updated and queried. The tree is implemented as a one-dimensional array, where each element at index stores the sum of elements from the original array up to that index, but in a way that leverages binary representation for efficient updates and queries.
To update an element at index , the tree adjusts all relevant nodes in the array, which can be done by repeatedly adding the value and moving to the next index using the formula . For querying the prefix sum up to index , it aggregates values from the tree using until is zero. Thus, Fenwick Trees are particularly effective in applications such as frequency counting, range queries, and dynamic programming.
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