LeetCode230. Kth Smallest Element in a BST

LeetCode230. Kth Smallest Element in a BST

题目：

Given a binary search tree, write a function kthSmallest to find the kth smallest element in it.

Note: 
You may assume k is always valid, 1 ≤ k ≤ BST's total elements.

Follow up:
What if the BST is modified (insert/delete operations) often and you need to find the kth smallest frequently? How would you optimize the kthSmallest routine?

题目分析：

分析1，这是一棵树，所以我们优先考虑递归去实现

分析2，这是一颗BST，所以是排序的。

因此可以通过分析它的子问题和终止条件得到这道题的解决方案。

代码：

/**
 * 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:
    int kthSmallest(TreeNode* root, int k) {
        int t = find(root->left);
        if (k > t) {
            if (k == t + 1) return root->val;
            else return kthSmallest(root->right, k - t - 1);
        } else {
            return kthSmallest(root->left, k);
        }
    }
    int find(TreeNode* root) {
        if (!root) return 0;
        int left = find(root->left);
        int right = find(root->right);
        return left + right + 1;
    }
};