230. Kth Smallest Element in a BST

Given a binary search tree, write a function kthSmallest to find the kth smallest element in it.

Note:
You may assume k is always valid, 1 ≤ k ≤ BST’s total elements.

Example 1:

Input: root = [3,1,4,null,2], k = 1
   3
  / \
 1   4
  \
   2
Output: 1

Example 2:

Input: root = [5,3,6,2,4,null,null,1], k = 3
       5
      / \
     3   6
    / \
   2   4
  /
 1
Output: 3

Follow up:
What if the BST is modified (insert/delete operations) often and you need to find the kth smallest frequently? How would you optimize the kthSmallest routine?

/**
 * 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* Helper(TreeNode* root, int& k)
    {
        TreeNode* res = nullptr;
        if(root->left != nullptr)
            res = Helper(root->left, k);
        if(res == nullptr)//未找到返回值
        {
            if(k == 1)
                res = root;//k=1.返回
            k --;
        }
        if(res == nullptr && root->right != nullptr)
            res = Helper(root->right, k);
        return res;
    }

    int kthSmallest(TreeNode* root, int k) {
        if(root == nullptr || k == 0)
            return 0;
        TreeNode* res = Helper(root, k);
        return res->val;
    }
};