94. Binary Tree Inorder Traversal


Given a binary tree, return the inorder traversal of its nodes' values.

For example:
Given binary tree [1,null,2,3],

   1
    \
     2
    /
   3

return [1,3,2].

Note: Recursive solution is trivial, could you do it iteratively?


Solution

Approach #1 Recursive Approach [Accepted]

The first method to solve this problem is using recursion. This is the classical method and is straightforward. We can define a helper function to implement recursion.

Complexity Analysis

  • Time complexity : . The time complexity is because the recursive function is .

  • Space complexity : The worst case space required is , and in the average case it's where is number of nodes.

Approach #2 Iterating method using Stack [Accepted]

The strategy is very similiar to the first method, the different is using stack.

Here is an illustration:

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Complexity Analysis

  • Time complexity : .

  • Space complexity : .

Approach #3 Morris Traversal [Accepted]

In this method, we have to use a new data structure-Threaded Binary Tree, and the strategy is as follows:

Step 1: Initialize current as root

Step 2: While current is not NULL,

If current does not have left child

a. Add current’s value

b. Go to the right, i.e., current = current.right

Else

a. In current's left subtree, make current the right child of the rightmost node

b. Go to this left child, i.e., current = current.left

For Example:

          1
        /   \
       2     3
      / \   /
     4   5 6

First, 1 is the root, so initialize 1 as current, 1 has left child which is 2, the current's left subtree is

         2
        / \
       4   5

So in this subtree, the rightmost node is 5, then make the current(1) as the right child of 5. Set current = cuurent.left (current = 2). The tree now looks like:

         2
        / \
       4   5
            \
             1
              \
               3
              /
             6

For current 2, which has left child 4, we can continue with thesame process as we did above

        4
         \
          2
           \
            5
             \
              1
               \
                3
               /
              6

then add 4 because it has no left child, then add 2, 5, 1, 3 one by one, for node 3 which has left child 6, do the same as above. Finally, the inorder taversal is [4,2,5,1,6,3].

For more details, please check Threaded binary tree and Explaination of Morris Method

Complexity Analysis

  • Time complexity : . To prove that the time complexity is , the biggest problem lies in finding the time complexity of finding the predecessor nodes of all the nodes in the binary tree. Intuitively, the complexity is , because to find the predecessor node for a single node related to the height of the tree. But in fact, finding the predecessor nodes for all nodes only needs time. Because a binary Tree with nodes has edges, the whole processing for each edges up to 2 times, one is to locate a node, and the other is to find the predecessor node. So the complexity is .

  • Space complexity : . Arraylist of size is used.

Analysis written by: @monkeykingyan

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