Problem:
Given a binary search tree (BST), find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in the BST.
According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: “The lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes v and w as the lowest node in T that has both v and w as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”
_______6______ / \ ___2__ ___8__ / \ / \ 0 _4 7 9 / \ 3 5
For example, the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of nodes 2
and 8
is 6
. Another example is LCA of nodes 2
and 4
is 2
, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.
Analysis:
Solutions:
C++:
TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
if(root == NULL)
return NULL;
int max_val = max(p->val, q->val);
int min_val = min(p->val, q->val);
TreeNode *p_cur = root;
while(p_cur->val <= min_val || p_cur->val >= max_val) {
if(p_cur->val == min_val || p_cur->val == max_val)
break;
if(p_cur->val < min_val)
p_cur = p_cur->right;
else
p_cur = p_cur->left;
}
return p_cur;
}
Java
:
Python: