DEV Community

Cover image for Algorithms Problem Solving: Tree to greater sum
TK
TK

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at leandrotk.github.io

Algorithms Problem Solving: Tree to greater sum

#algorithms #python #computerscience #interview

This post is part of the Algorithms Problem Solving series.

Problem description

This is the Binary Search Tree to Greater Sum Tree problem. The description looks like this:

Given the root of a binary search tree with distinct values, modify it so that every node has a new value equal to the sum of the values of the original tree that are greater than or equal to node.val.

As a reminder, a binary search tree is a tree that satisfies these constraints:

  • The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys less than the node's key.
  • The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys greater than the node's key.
  • Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.

Examples 

Input: [4,1,6,0,2,5,7,null,null,null,3,null,null,null,8]
Output: [30,36,21,36,35,26,15,null,null,null,33,null,null,null,8]
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Solution

My first approach was to traverse the tree to get the sum of all node values and all the node values.

def sum_and_list(node, total, values):
    left_total = 0
    right_total = 0
    left_values = []
    right_values = []

    if node.left:
        [left_total, left_values] = sum_and_list(node.left, total, values)

    if node.right:
        [right_total, right_values] = sum_and_list(node.right, total, values)

    return [
        total + left_total + node.val + right_total,
        values + left_values + [node.val] + right_values
    ]
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Then I built a hash map to map a node value to the greater sum it can have. So, for the example above, it would have this illustration:

{
  0: 36,
  1: 36,
  2: 35,
  3: 33,
  4: 30,
  5: 26,
  6: 21,
  7: 15,
  8: 8,
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The hash map creation algorithm is pretty simple:

smaller_total = 0
mapper = {}

for value in values:
    mapper[value] = total - smaller_total
    smaller_total += value
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Now I can use this hash map to modify each tree node. So, I traverse the tree again and update the node value with the value in the hash map. And then just return the root with all the tree modified.

def modify_helper(node, mapper):
    if node.left:
        modify_helper(node.left, mapper)

    if node.right:
        modify_helper(node.right, mapper)

    node.val = mapper[node.val]
    return node
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The bst_to_gst calls all the functions we built and return the modified node.

def bst_to_gst(root):
    [total, values] = sum_and_list(root, 0, [])

    smaller_total = 0
    mapper = {}

    for value in values:
        mapper[value] = total - smaller_total
        smaller_total += value

    return modify_helper(root, mapper)
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

We could also build a reversed in order tree traversal. So the algorithm will start with the rightmost node and then go to the left side. We increment the value as we traverse the tree.

value = 0

def bst_to_gst(node):
    if node.right:
        bst_to_gst(node.right)

    node.val = node.val + value
    value = node.val

    if node.left:
        bst_to_gst(node.left)

    return node
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Resources

Top comments (0)

Read next

jmfayard profile image

How to NOT answer "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard -

pedrohgoncalves profile image

Improving your Python code, an initial series of best practices.

Pedro H Goncalves -

olucascruz profile image

Tipos em Python

Lucas Cruz -

rmion profile image

Clumsy Crucible

Robert Mion -