LeetCode Algorithms #235 <Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Search Tree>

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.

思路：

找到一点，它的值正好在要找的两子节点的值的中间。

如果发现当前选中的点，比两个子节点的值都大，那么要找的点在当前点的左子树中。

如果发现当前选中的点，比两个子节点的值都笑，那么要找的点在当前点的右子树中。

解：

/**
 * 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:
    TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
        if(root == NULL || p == NULL || q == NULL)
            return NULL;
        
        if(p == root)
            return p;
        else if(q == root)
            return q;
        
        TreeNode* lagerNode = NULL;
        TreeNode* smallerNode = NULL;
        if(p->val >= root->val)
        {
            lagerNode = p;
            smallerNode = q;
        }
        else
        {
            lagerNode = q;
            smallerNode = p;
        }
        
        if(root->val > lagerNode->val)
        {
            return lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
        }
        else if(root->val < smallerNode->val)
        {
            return lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
        }
        else
        {
            return root;
        }
        
    }
};