LeetCode 236 Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree 二叉树的最近公共祖先

1. problem description

Given a binary tree, find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in the tree.

According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: “The lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes p and q as the lowest node in T that has both p and q as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”

Given the following binary tree: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4]

Example 1:

Input: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4], p = 5, q = 1
Output: 3
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 5 and 1 is 3.

Example 2:

Input: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4], p = 5, q = 4
Output: 5
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 5 and 4 is 5, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.

Note:

• All of the nodes’ values will be unique.
• p and q are different and both values will exist in the binary tree.

2. solution

2.1 思路

给定一个节点，节点p和q对于该节点而言存在以下三种情况：
 ① p和q分别位于该节点的左右分支中；
 ② p和q位于该节点的同侧分支中；
 ③ 该节点为p或者q。
那么当程序开始给定一个节点时，我们可以依次做以下动作：
 ① 检查自己是不是p或者q（如果是的话直接返回自己即可），检查自己是否为空，空的话返回null；
 ② 对自己的左子树进行递归性检验；
 ③ 对自己的右子树进行递归性检验；
 ④ 分类讨论：
    a. 如果节点的左子树和右子树的递归性检验分别传回来一个非空值，那么该节点即为LCA；
    b. 如果节点的左子树递归性检验传回来非空值，右子树的递归性检验传回来一个空值，则结果为左子树传回来的值；
    c. 如果节点的左子树递归性检验传回来空值，右子树的递归性检验传回来一个非空值，则结果为右子树传回来的值。

TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) 
{
        if(!root)
            return NULL;
            
        if(root == p || root == q)
            return root;
            
        // 检查左子树是否包含 p or q
        TreeNode* left = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
        // 检查右子树是否包含 p or q
        TreeNode* right = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
        
        // 如果节点的左子树和右子树分别包含p和q，那么该节点就是LCA
        if(left && right)
            return root;
        // 否则返回左子树或右子树返回的非空值
        return left ? left : right;        
    }