129. Sum Root to Leaf Numbers (A good example to compare to Styles to solve tree problems)

Given a binary tree containing digits from 0-9 only, each root-to-leaf path could represent a number.

An example is the root-to-leaf path 1->2->3 which represents the number 123.

Find the total sum of all root-to-leaf numbers.

For example,

    1
   / \
  2   3

The root-to-leaf path 1->2 represents the number 12.
The root-to-leaf path 1->3 represents the number 13.

Return the sum = 12 + 13 = 25.

The first one using a global variable and do dfs. 

Code:

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
 * }
 */
public class Solution {
    int ret = 0;
    public int sumNumbers(TreeNode root) {
        if(root == null) return 0;
        helper(0,root);
        return ret;
    }
    
    void helper(int path, TreeNode root){
        path *= 10;
        path += root.val;
        if(root.left == null && root.right == null){
            ret += path;
            return;
        }
        if(root.left!=null){
            helper(path,root.left);
        }
        if(root.right!=null){
            helper(path,root.right);
        }
    }
}

The second one, divide and conquer

public class Solution {
    public int sumNumbers(TreeNode root) {
        return helper(0,root);
    }
    
    int helper(int path, TreeNode root){
        if(root == null) return 0;
        path *= 10;
        path += root.val;
        if(root.left == null && root.right == null){
            return path;
        }
        int ans = 0;
        if(root.left!=null){
            ans += helper(path,root.left);
        }
        if(root.right!=null){
            ans += helper(path,root.right);
        }
        return ans;
    }
}