interview-questions

Invert Binary Tree

Invert a binary tree.

Example

    1          1
   / \        / \
  2   3  =>  3   2
     /        \
    4          4

Challenge

Do it in recursion is acceptable, can you do it without recursion?

Solution

We just traverse the tree and when we reach a tree node, we swap the left node pointer and right node pointer.

We can do this very easy if we use recursion.

/**
 * Definition of TreeNode:
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     public int val;
 *     public TreeNode left, right;
 *     public TreeNode(int val) {
 *         this.val = val;
 *         this.left = this.right = null;
 *     }
 * }
 */
public class Solution {
    /**
     * @param root: a TreeNode, the root of the binary tree
     * @return: nothing
     */
    public void invertBinaryTree(TreeNode root) {
        // write your code here
        if (root == null) {
            return ;
        }
        TreeNode tmp = root.left;
        root.left = root.right;
        root.right = tmp;
        invertBinaryTree(root.left);
        invertBinaryTree(root.right);
    }
}

Without recursion, we can use a Stack to simulate the tree's traversal.

/**
 * Definition of TreeNode:
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     public int val;
 *     public TreeNode left, right;
 *     public TreeNode(int val) {
 *         this.val = val;
 *         this.left = this.right = null;
 *     }
 * }
 */
public class Solution {
    /**
     * @param root: a TreeNode, the root of the binary tree
     * @return: nothing
     */
    public void invertBinaryTree(TreeNode root) {
        Stack<TreeNode> stack = new Stack<TreeNode>();
        if (root != null) {
            stack.push(root);
            while (!stack.empty()) {
                TreeNode cur = stack.pop();
                TreeNode tmp = cur.left;
                cur.left = cur.right;
                cur.right = tmp;
                if (cur.left != null) {
                    stack.push(cur.left);
                }
                if (cur.right != null) {
                    stack.push(cur.right);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}