Embodiments of the invention include a method for encoding a tree. The method includes receiving an input tree of many nodes organized in a parent-child hierarchy with parent nodes being coupled to one or more child nodes. A node ID is assigned to each of the nodes of the input tree. A representation between each parent node and child node associated with the parent node can be generated and a tree code can be computed from prime numbers in the natural sequence of numbers and the assigned node Ids. Finally, the tree code representative of the input tree is stored.