We introduce data-structural bootstrapping, a technique to design data structures recursively, and use it to design confluently persistent deques. Our data structure requires O(log 3 k) worstcase time and space per deletion, where k is the total number of deque operations, and constant worst-case time and space for other operations. Further, the data structure allows a purely functional implementation, with no side effects. This improves a previous result of Driscoll, Sleator, and Tarjan. 1 An extended abstract of this paper was presented at the 4th ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 1993. 2 Supported by a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation fellowship, National Science Foundation Grant No. CCR-8920505, and the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) under NSF-STC88-09648. 3 Also affiliated with NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton, NJ 08540. Research at Princeton University partially supported by the National Science Foundatio...

We show that, in order to achieve efficient maintenance of a balanced binary search tree, no shape restriction other than a logarithmic height is required. The obtained class of trees, general balanced trees, may be maintained at a logarithmic amortized cost with no balance information stored in the nodes. Thus, in the case when amortized bounds are sufficient, there is no need for sophisticated balance criteria. The maintenance algorithms use partial rebuilding. This is important for certain applications and has previously been used with weight-balanced trees. We show that the amortized cost incurred by general balanced trees is lower than what has been shown for weight-balanced trees. � 1999 Academic Press 1.