[leetcode] 235. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Search Tree

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 v and w as the lowest node in T that has both v and w as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”

        _______6______
       /              \
    ___2__          ___8__
   /      \        /      \
   0      _4       7       9
         /  \
         3   5

For example, the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of nodes 2 and 8 is 6. Another example is LCA of nodes 2 and 4 is 2, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.

Solution 

Idea: the value of lowest common ancestor is between the values of input two nodes. Use recursive function to find it.

/**
 * 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) {
        int pval = p->val;
        int qval = q->val;
        if (root->val==pval || root->val==qval)
            return root;
        else if (min(pval,qval)<root->val && max(pval,qval)>root->val)
            return root;
        else if (root->val>max(pval,qval))
            return lowestCommonAncestor(root->left,p,q);
        else if (root->val<min(pval,qval))
            return lowestCommonAncestor(root->right,p,q);
        return root;
    }
};