LeetCode 题解：111. Minimum Depth of Binary Tree

Given a binary tree, find its minimum depth.

The minimum depth is the number of nodes along the shortest path from the root node down to the nearest leaf node.

Note: A leaf is a node with no children.

Example:

Given binary tree [3,9,20,null,null,15,7],

    3
   / \
  9  20
    /  \
   15   7

return its minimum depth = 2.

解题思路

本题采用递归的写法。算法共三步：
1、当检测到树节点为叶子节点时，返回当前深度 depth
2、假如当前节点有左子节点，那么继续递归，depth + 1；否则，将当前节点的左子树的深度设置为无穷大
3、假如当前节点有右子节点，那么继续递归，depth + 1；否则，将当前节点的右子树的深度设置为无穷大
4、选择当前节点左子树深度和右子树深度之间的较小值返回

C++代码

class Solution {
public:
    int minDepth(TreeNode* root) {
        return root == NULL? 0 : check(root, 1);
    }
    
    int check(TreeNode* root, int depth) {
        if(root == NULL || (root->left == NULL && root->right == NULL)) {
            return depth;
        }
        else{
            int dl = root->left == NULL? 0x7fffffff : check(root->left, depth+1);
            int dr = root->right == NULL? 0x7fffffff : check(root->right, depth+1);
            return min(dl,dr);
        }
    }
};