[Dev-C++] binary tree search + need to find char*

[Peter M. <pet...@im...>]

Hello,
I am still learning C++ and I am not sure how to do this.
I am writing a dictionary for use with secondary students. The words, 
descriptions and a unique code get read in from a binary file on disk
and stored in individual nodes of a binary search tree according to the
code in each entry of the binary file on disk.
i can retrieve a word and description at runtime by using the code as
given by the user however, i need to be able to search the tree
structure for the word as given by the user. i can find the word by
testing recursively, but i there is a more efficient way to do this.

here is the search for the code:
//////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
 DicTreeNode* DicBinaryTree::idBTreeSearch(DicTreeNode* nodePtr, long
dicId) { 
 if (nodePtr != 0) { 
 if (dicId < nodePtr->id){ 
 this->idBTreeSearch(nodePtr->leftChild,dicId); 
 } 
 else if (dicId > nodePtr->id) { 
 this->idBTreeSearch(nodePtr->rightChild,dicId); 
 } 
 else { 
 rtnNodePtr = nodePtr; 
 } 
 return rtnNodePtr; 
 } 
 else { 
 return nodePtr = 0; 
 } 
} 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
the above code works fine with a long as the id for the search... 
the code below works but is not a good way of doing the search... 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
 DicTreeNode* DicBinaryTree::wordBTreeSearch(DicTreeNode* nodePtr, char*
dicWord ){ 
 if (nodePtr != 0) { // this method of finding the word is not
efficient... 
 this->wordBTreeSearch(nodePtr->leftChild,dicWord); 
 this->wordBTreeSearch(nodePtr->rightChild,dicWord); 
 if (!strcmp(nodePtr->word,dicWord)) { 
 this->rtnNodePtr = nodePtr; 
 } 
 return this->rtnNodePtr; 
 } 
 else{ 
 return nodePtr = 0; 
 } 
} 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
any ideas?? 
TIA 
Peter Mead.