问题描述:
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.
代码实现:
/**
* Definition for a binary tree node.
* struct TreeNode {
* int val;
* struct TreeNode *left;
* struct TreeNode *right;
* };
*/
struct TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(struct TreeNode* root, struct TreeNode* p, struct TreeNode* q) {
if (root == NULL || p == NULL || q == NULL)
return NULL;
if ((p->val <= root->val && q->val >= root->val) || (q->val <= root->val && p->val >= root->val))
return root;
else if (p->val < root->val && q->val < root->val)
return lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
else
return lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
}
总结:二叉搜索树的特点为:
它或者是一棵空树,或者是具有下列性质的二叉树: 若它的左子树不空,则左子树上所有结点的值均小于它的根结点的值; 若它的右子树不空,则右子树上所有结点的值均大于它的根结点的值; 它的左、右子树也分别为二叉排序树。
根据其特点用递归算法,一次递归分为三种情况:1、结点p和结点q分别在根结点的左右子树,或者其中一个结点是根结点,此时返回根结点;2、结点p和结点q都在根结点的左子树;3、结点p和结点q都在根结点的右子树。