leetcode: Binary Tree Preorder Traversal

Given a binary tree, return the preorder traversal of its nodes' values.

For example:
Given binary tree {1,#,2,3},

   1
    \
     2
    /
   3

return [1,2,3].

Note: Recursive solution is trivial, could you do it iteratively?

/**
 * Definition for binary tree
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    vector<int> preorderTraversal(TreeNode *root) {
        
        vector<int> retVtr;
        
        if (!root)
            return retVtr;
        
        stack<TreeNode *> nodeStack;
        TreeNode *pCurNode = root;
        /* 
        *   previously, my wrong thinking is that, the left children will be gottn from the stack's top element
        *   while the right children also be gottn from the stack's top element
        *   so, code just below the top level while will have difficulty to get whether the left or right children
        *
        *   the correct method is, the left children should be gottn just from the binary tree's left pointer, while
        *   the right children should be gottn from the top element from the stack
        */

        while (pCurNode || !nodeStack.empty())
        {
            while (pCurNode) // handle left children
            {
                nodeStack.push(pCurNode);
                retVtr.push_back(pCurNode->val);
                
                pCurNode = pCurNode->left;
            }
            
            if (!nodeStack.empty()) // handle right children
            {
                pCurNode = nodeStack.top();
                nodeStack.pop();
                pCurNode = pCurNode->right;
            }
        }
        
        return retVtr;
    }
};