124. Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum

Description

Given a non-empty binary tree, find the maximum path sum.

For this problem, a path is defined as any sequence of nodes from some starting node to any node in the tree along the parent-child connections. The path must contain at least one node and does not need to go through the root.

Example 1:

Input: [1,2,3]

   1
  / \
 2   3

Output: 6
Example 2:

Input: [-10,9,20,null,null,15,7]

-10
/
9 20
/
15 7

Output: 42

Problem URL

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Solution

给一棵非空二叉树，找到一条拥有最大加和的路径，并返回它的和。路径不一定要经过root。

We could use recursion to solve this proble. Using a global variable to store the max path sum. Then from the root node, we start recursion, for a node in the tree, if it is null, return 0; Or calculate the maxpath from it left child and right child, If the value is smaller than 0, we just discard it. Calculating new max path value. And return the biggst one from its left and right plus the value of this node for upper level recursion.

Code

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
 * }
 */
class Solution {
    int maxValue = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
    public int maxPathSum(TreeNode root) {
        maxPathHelper(root);
        return maxValue;
    }
    
    private int maxPathHelper(TreeNode node){
        if (node == null){
            return 0;
        }
        
        int left = Math.max(0, maxPathHelper(node.left));
        int right = Math.max(0, maxPathHelper(node.right));
        maxValue = Math.max(maxValue, left + right + node.val);
        return node.val + Math.max(left, right);
    }
}

Time Complexity: unknow
Space Complexity: unknow

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Review

带贪心的递归。