Question

Given a binary search tree (BST), find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in the BST.

According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: “The lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes p and q as the lowest node in T that has both p and q as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”

Given binary search tree: root = [6,2,8,0,4,7,9,null,null,3,5]

Example 1:

Input: root = [6,2,8,0,4,7,9,null,null,3,5], p = 2, q = 8 Output: 6 Explanation: The LCA of nodes 2 and 8 is 6.

Example 2:

Input: root = [6,2,8,0,4,7,9,null,null,3,5], p = 2, q = 4 Output: 2 Explanation: The LCA of nodes 2 and 4 is 2, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.

Note:

  • All of the nodes' values will be unique.
  • p and q are different and both values will exist in the BST.

Difficulty:Easy

Category:

Analyze

Solution

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
 public:
  TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
    if (!root) return nullptr;
    if (root->val > p->val && root->val > q->val) return lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
    if (root->val < p->val && root->val < q->val) return lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
    return root;
  }
};

Solution 2: Leetcode 236

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
//Runtime: 24ms
class Solution {
 public:
  TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
    if (!root || root == p || root == q) return root;
    TreeNode* l = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
    TreeNode* r = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
    if (l && r) return root;
    return l ? l : r;
  }
};
By guozetang            Updated: 2020-09-19 13:02:30

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