Given a binary tree, determine if it is a valid binary search tree (BST).
Assume a BST is defined as follows:
- The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys less than the node's key.
- The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys greater than the node's key.
- Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.
confused what "{1,#,2,3}"
means? > read more on how binary tree is serialized on OJ.
Analysis:
The strigh forwared idea is using the Tree Traversal. Consider the Binary Search Tree with InOrder traversal. The result should be a sequence in ascending order, otherwise, it's not a binary search tree.
ArrayList<Integer> result;
public boolean isValidBST(TreeNode root) {
result = new ArrayList<Integer>();
if(root == null) return true;
inorder(root);
for(int i=0;i<result.size()-1;i++){
if(result.get(i)>=result.get(i+1))
return false;
}
return true;
}
public void inorder(TreeNode root){
if(root!=null){
inorder(root.left);
result.add(root.val);
inorder(root.right);
}
}
the other solution, we could set the bounary min and max value for each sub-tree,
the root has no restriction
for every level tree, the left child max value < root, the right child min value > root
public boolean isValidBST(TreeNode root) {
return judgeBST(root, Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MIN_VALUE);
}
public boolean judgeBST(TreeNode root, int max, int min){
if(root == null) return true;
if(root.val<max && root.val>min && judgeBST(root.left, root.val, min)
&& judgeBST(root.right, max, root.val)){
return true;
}else {
return false;
}
}
c++
bool judgeValidBST(TreeNode *root, int nMin, int nMax)
{
if(root == NULL) return true;
if(root->val <=nMax && root->val >=nMin
&& judgeValidBST(root->left,nMin,root->val)
&& judgeValidBST(root->right,root->val,nMax))
return true;
else
return false;
}
bool isValidBST(TreeNode *root) {
return judgeValidBST(root,INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
}