236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree
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 nodes5
and1
is3.
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 nodes5
and4
is5
, 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.
-
这道求二叉树的最小共同父节点的题是之前那道 Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Search Tree 的Follow Up。跟之前那题不同的地方是,这道题是普通是二叉树,不是二叉搜索树,所以就不能利用其特有的性质,所以我们只能在二叉树中来搜索p和q,然后从路径中找到最后一个相同的节点即为父节点,我们可以用递归来实现,在递归函数中,我们首先看当前结点是否为空,若为空则直接返回空,若为p或q中的任意一个,也直接返回当前结点。否则的话就对其左右子结点分别调用递归函数,由于这道题限制了p和q一定都在二叉树中存在,那么如果当前结点不等于p或q,p和q要么分别位于左右子树中,要么同时位于左子树,或者同时位于右子树,那么我们分别来讨论:
若p和q要么分别位于左右子树中,那么对左右子结点调用递归函数,会分别返回p和q结点的位置,而当前结点正好就是p和q的最小共同父结点,直接返回当前结点即可,这就是题目中的例子1的情况。
若p和q同时位于左子树,这里有两种情况,一种情况是left会返回p和q中较高的那个位置,而right会返回空,所以我们最终返回非空的left即可,这就是题目中的例子2的情况。还有一种情况是会返回p和q的最小父结点,就是说当前结点的左子树中的某个结点才是p和q的最小父结点,会被返回。
若p和q同时位于右子树,同样这里有两种情况,一种情况是right会返回p和q中较高的那个位置,而left会返回空,所以我们最终返回非空的right即可,还有一种情况是会返回p和q的最小父结点,就是说当前结点的右子树中的某个结点才是p和q的最小父结点,会被返回,写法很简洁,代码如下:
/**
* Definition for a binary tree node.
* public class TreeNode {
* int val;
* TreeNode left;
* TreeNode right;
* TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
* }
*/
class Solution {
public TreeNode lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode root, TreeNode p, TreeNode q) {
if (root == null || root == p || root == q) return root;
TreeNode left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
TreeNode right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
if(left == null)
return right;
else if(right == null)
return left;
else
return root;
}
}
第二种解法 二叉搜索树的情况:
我们递归调用左右节点和p ,q 节点的比较值,如果在p q中间说明是该节点,比pq都小事左节点, 比pq都大肯定在右节点找
class Solution {
public TreeNode lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode root, TreeNode p, TreeNode q) {
if(root.val > p.val && root.val > q.val)
return lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
if(root.val < p.val && root.val < q.val)
return lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
return root;
}
}