keys and +then key stored in the subtree of rooted at child node must be "in betweentwo keys stored at this simple viewpoint gives rise to the rule that -node stores regular keysand it also forms the basis of the algorithm for searching in multi-way search tree by the above definitionthe external nodes of multi-way search do not store any entries and serve only as "placeholders,as has been our convention with binary search trees (section )hencea binary search tree can be viewed as special case of multi-way search treewhere each internal node stores one entry and has two children in additionwhile the external nodes could be nullwe make the simplifying assumption here that they are actual nodes that don' store anything figure (aa multi-way search tree (bsearch path in for key (unsuccessful search)(csearch path in for key (successful search