You are now entering the PC Anatomy portal

In computing, "leaf" most commonly refers to a node in a hierarchical data structure, like a file system or a tree, that has no children, marking the end of a branch. It can also refer to other concepts, such as a leaf class that cannot be subclassed, a leaf function that calls no other functions, or a leaf switch in a spine-leaf network architecture.

In data structures

Leaf node: A node in a tree that has no child nodes.

Example: In a file system, files are considered leaves, as they have no further directories or files beneath them, while folders are the branches.

Function: Leaf nodes typically hold the actual data or value and represent the end points of a path through the tree.

In programming

Leaf class: An object-oriented programming class that is not meant to be inherited by other classes.

Leaf function: A function that does not call any other functions itself. This can be useful for optimization, as the compiler knows it's at the end of a call sequence.