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;
}
};