Leetcode 235. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Search Tree

235. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Search Tree

Easy

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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.

/**
 * 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) 
    {
        //p和q在root两边 root就是答案
		//如果p和q在root的一边 如果root是p和q本身 就是本身 依次类推
		if(p->val==root->val)//等于root 直接返回
		{
			return p;
		}
		if(q->val==root->val)//等于root 直接返回
		{
			return q;
		}
		if(p->val<root->val&&q->val>root->val)//root在中间 root就是答案
		{
			return root;
		}
		if(p->val<root->val&&q->val<root->val)//全部小于root 返回左孩子
		{
			return lowestCommonAncestor(root->left,p,q);
		}
		if(p->val>root->val&&q->val>root->val)//全部大于root 返回右孩子
		{
			return lowestCommonAncestor(root->right,p,q);
		}
		return root;
    }
};

解法：找最近的公共父亲节点，一个二叉排序树，如果p和q在root两边，那么root就是答案，如果p和q在root的左边或者右边，那么递归调用root的左孩子或者右孩子。