Problem Statement
(Source) Serialization is the process of converting a data structure or object into a sequence of bits so that it can be stored in a file or memory buffer, or transmitted across a network connection link to be reconstructed later in the same or another computer environment.
Design an algorithm to serialize and deserialize a binary search tree. There is no restriction on how your serialization/deserialization algorithm should work. You just need to ensure that a binary search tree can be serialized to a string and this string can be deserialized to the original tree structure.
The encoded string should be as compact as possible.
Note: Do not use class member/global/static variables to store states. Your serialize and deserialize algorithms should be stateless.
Tags: Tree
.
Solution
# Definition for a binary tree node.
# class TreeNode(object):
# def __init__(self, x):
# self.val = x
# self.left = None
# self.right = None
class Codec:
def serialize(self, root):
"""Encodes a tree to a single string.
:type root: TreeNode
:rtype: str
"""
if not root:
return '#'
res = []
d = collections.deque([root])
while d:
node = d.popleft()
if not node:
res.append('#')
else:
res.append(str(node.val))
d.append(node.left)
d.append(node.right)
while res[-1] == '#':
res.pop()
return ','.join(res)
def deserialize(self, data):
"""Decodes your encoded data to tree.
:type data: str
:rtype: TreeNode
"""
if data == '#':
return None
values = data.split(',')
j, n = 1, len(values)
root = TreeNode(int(values[0]))
d = collections.deque([root])
while d:
node = d.popleft()
if node and j < n:
left = self.make_node(values[j])
node.left = left
d.append(left)
j += 1
if j < n:
right = self.make_node(values[j])
node.right = right
d.append(right)
j += 1
return root
def make_node(self, s):
return TreeNode(int(s)) if s != '#' else None
# Your Codec object will be instantiated and called as such:
# codec = Codec()
# codec.deserialize(codec.serialize(root))