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Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree in Python

Suppose we have a binary tree. we have to find the Lowest common ancestor nodes of two given nodes. The LCA of two nodes p and q is actually as the lowest node in tree that has both p and q as decedent. So if the binary tree is like [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4]. The tree will be like −

Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree in Python

Here LCA of 5 and 1 is 3

To solve this, we will follow these steps −

  • If the tree is empty, then return null
  • if p and q both are same as root, then return root
  • left := LCA of left subtree of the root using p and q
  • right := LCA of right subtree of the root using p and q
  • if left and right both are non-zero, then return root
  • return left OR right

Let us see the following implementation to get better understanding −

Example

class TreeNode:
   def __init__(self, data, left = None, right = None):
      self.data = data
      self.left = left
      self.right = right
def insert(temp,data):
   que = []
   que.append(temp)
   while (len(que)):
      temp = que[0]
      que.pop(0)
      if (not temp.left):
         if data is not None:
            temp.left = TreeNode(data)
         else:
            temp.left = TreeNode(0)
         break
      else:
         que.append(temp.left)
         if (not temp.right):
            if data is not None:
               temp.right = TreeNode(data)
            else:
               temp.right = TreeNode(0)
            break
         else:
            que.append(temp.right)
def make_tree(elements):
   Tree = TreeNode(elements[0])
   for element in elements[1:]:
      insert(Tree, element)
   return Tree
class Solution(object):
   def lowestCommonAncestor(self, root, p, q):
      if not root:
         return None
      if root.data == p or root.data ==q:
         return root
      left = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q)
      right = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q)
      if right and left:
         return root
      return right or left
ob1 = Solution()
tree = make_tree([3,5,1,6,2,0,8,None,None,7,4])
print(ob1.lowestCommonAncestor(tree, 5, 1).data)

Input

[3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4]
5
1

Output

3