331. Verify Preorder Serialization of a Binary Tree

One way to serialize a binary tree is to use pre-order traversal. When we encounter a non-null node, we record the node’s value. If it is a null node, we record using a sentinel value such as #.

     _9_
    /   \
   3     2
  / \   / \
 4   1  #  6
/ \ / \   / \
# # # #   # #

For example, the above binary tree can be serialized to the string “9,3,4,#,#,1,#,#,2,#,6,#,#”, where # represents a null node.

Given a string of comma separated values, verify whether it is a correct preorder traversal serialization of a binary tree. Find an algorithm without reconstructing the tree.

Each comma separated value in the string must be either an integer or a character ‘#’ representing null pointer.

You may assume that the input format is always valid, for example it could never contain two consecutive commas such as “1,,3”.

Example 1:

Input: "9,3,4,#,#,1,#,#,2,#,6,#,#"
Output: true

Example 2:

Input: "1,#"
Output: false

_Example 3:

Input: "9,#,#,1"
Output: false

Firstly, it should have odd length number if it’s valid serialization.
Secondly, because we use ‘#’ to represent non-node, so there will are two children for every node. Then we record every node’s current children\’s number we have dealt with.
If it is two, which means we have met its two children, then this node is valid, and we consider this preorder sequence is valid if every node is valid.
The last but not least, we must notice that this input is a string, which means we must transform it to number, then we can do above operation.
Take some example and test the following code, it’s easy to understand.

bool isValidSerialization(string preorder)
{
    if(preorder.size() == 1 && preorder[0] == '#')return true;
    stack<int> original, state;
    for(int i = 0; i < preorder.size(); i++)
    {
        if(i != 0 && original.empty())return false;
        if(preorder[i] == ',')continue;
        if(preorder[i] != '#')
        {

            int thisnumber = preorder[i] - '0';
            while(i < preorder.size() - 1 && preorder[i + 1] <= '9' && preorder[i + 1] >= '0')
                thisnumber = thisnumber * 10 + preorder[++i] - '0';
            if(!state.empty()){int tep = state.top() + 1;state.pop();state.push(tep);}
            state.push(0);
            original.push(thisnumber);
        }
        else
        {
            if(original.empty())return false;
            if(state.top() == 0)
            {
                state.pop();state.push(1);  
            }
            else
            {
                state.pop();original.pop();
                while(!state.empty() && state.top() == 2)
                {
                    state.pop();original.pop();
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return original.empty();
}

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