Inorder predecessor and successor for a given key in BST
I recently encountered with a question in an interview at e-commerce company. The interviewer asked the following question:
There is BST given with root node with key part as integer only. The structure of each node is as follows:
struct Node
{
int key;
struct Node *left, *right ;
};
You need to find the inorder successor and predecessor of a given key. In case the given key is not found in BST, then return the two values within which this key will lie.
![inorder successor and inorder predecessor](https://www.wikitechy.com/technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/inorder-successor-and-inorder-predecessor.png)
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Following is the algorithm to reach the desired result. Its a recursive method:
Input: root node, key
output: predecessor node, successor node
1. If root is NULL
then return
2. if key is found then
a. If its left subtree is not null
Then predecessor will be the right most
child of left subtree or left child itself.
b. If its right subtree is not null
The successor will be the left most child
of right subtree or right child itself.
return
3. If key is smaller then root node
set the successor as root
search recursively into left subtree
else
set the predecessor as root
search recursively into right subtree
Implementation of Python code:
Python Programming
# Python program to find predecessor and successor in a BST
# A BST node
class Node:
# Constructor to create a new node
def __init__(self, key):
self.key = key
self.left = None
self.right = None
# This fucntion finds predecessor and successor of key in BST
# It sets pre and suc as predecessor and successor respectively
def findPreSuc(root, key):
# Base Case
if root is None:
return
# If key is present at root
if root.key == key:
# the maximum value in left subtree is predecessor
if root.left is not None:
tmp = root.left
while(tmp.right):
tmp = tmp.right
findPreSuc.pre = tmp
# the minimum value in right subtree is successor
if root.right is not None:
tmp = root.right
while(temp.left):
tmp = tmp.left
findPreSuc.suc = tmp
return
# If key is smaller than root's key, go to left subtree
if root.key > key :
findPreSuc.suc = root
findPreSuc(root.left, key)
else: # go to right subtree
findPreSuc.pre = root
findPreSuc(root.right, key)
# A utility function to insert a new node in with given key in BST
def insert(node , key):
if node is None:
return Node(key)
if key < node.key:
node.left = insert(node.left, key)
else:
node.right = insert(node.right, key)
return node
# Driver program to test above function
key = 65 #Key to be searched in BST
""" Let us create following BST
50
/ \
30 70
/ \ / \
20 40 60 80
"""
root = None
root = insert(root, 50)
insert(root, 30);
insert(root, 20);
insert(root, 40);
insert(root, 70);
insert(root, 60);
insert(root, 80);
# Static variables of the function findPreSuc
findPreSuc.pre = None
findPreSuc.suc = None
findPreSuc(root, key)
if findPreSuc.pre is not None:
print "Predecessor is", findPreSuc.pre.key
else:
print "No Predecessor"
if findPreSuc.suc is not None:
print "Successor is", findPreSuc.suc.key
else:
print "No Successor"
# This code is contributed by Nikhil Kumar Singh(nickzuck_007)
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Output:
Predecessor is 60
Successor is 70