Leetcode192: Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree

Serialization is the process of converting a data structure or object into a sequence of bits so that it can be stored in a file or memory buffer, or transmitted across a network connection link to be reconstructed later in the same or another computer environment.

Design an algorithm to serialize and deserialize a binary tree. There is no restriction on how your serialization/deserialization algorithm should work. You just need to ensure that a binary tree can be serialized to a string and this string can be deserialized to the original tree structure.

For example, you may serialize the following tree

    1
   / \
  2   3
     / \
    4   5

as  "[1,2,3,null,null,4,5]" , just the same as  how LeetCode OJ serializes a binary tree . You do not necessarily need to follow this format, so please be creative and come up with different approaches yourself.

Note: Do not use class member/global/static variables to store states. Your serialize and deserialize algorithms should be stateless.

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Codec {
public:

    // Encodes a tree to a single string.
    string serialize(TreeNode* root) {
        string result;
        traverse(root, result);
        return result;
    }

    // Decodes your encoded data to tree.
    TreeNode* deserialize(string data) {
        int start = 0;
        return helper(data, start);
    }
    
private:
    void traverse(TreeNode* root, string& result) {
        if(result.size() != 0) {
            result.push_back(',');
        }
        if(root == NULL) {
            result += "NULL";
            return;
        }
        result += to_string(root -> val);
        traverse(root -> left, result);
        traverse(root -> right, result);
    }

    TreeNode* helper(string data, int& start) {
        if(start >= data.size()) {
            return NULL;
        }
        int index = data.find_first_of(',', start);
        if(index == string::npos) {
            index = data.size();
        }
        string tmp = data.substr(start, index - start);
        start = index + 1;
        if(tmp == "NULL") {
            return NULL;
        }
        TreeNode* root = new TreeNode(stoi(tmp));
        root -> left = helper(data, start);
        root -> right = helper(data, start);
        return root;
    }
};

// Your Codec object will be instantiated and called as such:
// Codec codec;
// codec.deserialize(codec.serialize(root));