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]
_______3______ / ___5__ ___1__ / / 6 _2 0 8 / 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.
Approach #1: C++.
/** * Definition for a binary tree node. * struct TreeNode { * int val; * TreeNode *left; * TreeNode *right; * TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {} * }; */ class Solution { public: TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) { if (!root) return NULL; if (root == p || root == q) return root; TreeNode* leftchild = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q); TreeNode* rightchild = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q); return !leftchild ? rightchild : !rightchild ? leftchild : root; // if (leftchild && rightchild) return root; // if (!leftchild) return root->right; // if (!rightchild) return root->left; } };
In this case we should understand it is difference between:
return !leftchild ? rightchild : !rightchild ? leftchild : root;
and
if (leftchild && rightchild) return root; if (!leftchild) return root->right; if (!rightchild) return root->left;
Approach #2: Java.
/** * 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) return null; if (root == p || root == q) return root; TreeNode left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q); TreeNode right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q); return left == null ? right : right == null ? left : root; } }
Approach #3: Python.
# Definition for a binary tree node. # class TreeNode(object): # def __init__(self, x): # self.val = x # self.left = None # self.right = None class Solution(object): def lowestCommonAncestor(self, root, p, q): """ :type root: TreeNode :type p: TreeNode :type q: TreeNode :rtype: TreeNode """ if not root: return None if root == p or root == q: return root left = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q) right = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q) if left and right: return root if not left: return right if not right: return left