Diameter of Binary Tree

Given a binary tree, you need to compute the length of the diameter of the tree. The diameter of a binary tree is the length of the longestpath between any two nodes in a tree. This path may or may not pass through the root.

Example:
Given a binary tree 

          1
         / \
        2   3
       / \     
      4   5    

Return 3, which is the length of the path [4,2,1,3] or [5,2,1,3].

Note: The length of path between two nodes is represented by the number of edges between them.

思路： 典型的post-order traversal tree. For each node, we need to count the max edges of left tree and right tree. Then , plus them and compare with the max edges.

易错：在null return时候要 return -1. 还有只能return 单边最多的。

Time: O(n) n is nodes. Space: O(lg n)

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
 * }
 */
public class Solution {
    public int diameterOfBinaryTree(TreeNode root) {
        if(root == null){
            return 0;
        }
        int[] max = new int[1];
        countHelper(root, max);
        return max[0];
    }
    
    private int countHelper(TreeNode root, int[] max){
        if(root == null){
            return -1;
        }
        int leftMax = countHelper(root.left, max) + 1;
        int rightMax = countHelper(root.right, max) + 1;
        int edges = leftMax + rightMax;
        max[0] = Math.max(edges, max[0]);
        return Math.max(leftMax, rightMax);
    }
}