[LeetCode 297] Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree

Serialization is the process of converting a data structure or object into a sequence of bits so that it can be stored in a file or memory buffer, or transmitted across a network connection link to be reconstructed later in the same or another computer environment.

Design an algorithm to serialize and deserialize a binary tree. There is no restriction on how your serialization/deserialization algorithm should work. You just need to ensure that a binary tree can be serialized to a string and this string can be deserialized to the original tree structure.

For example, you may serialize the following tree

  1
 / \
2   3
   / \
  4   5

as "[1, 2, 3, null, null, 4, 5]", just the same as how LeetCode OJ serializes a binary tree. You do not necessarily need to follow this format, so please be creative and come up with different approaches yourself.

Note: Do not use class member/global/static variables to store states. Your serialize and deserialize algorithms should be stateless.

Diffculty
Hard

Similar Problems
[LeetCode 271] Encode and Decode Strings Medium [LeetCode 449] Serialize and Deserialize BST Medium

Analysis

这题有两种解法，分别为先序遍历的递归解法和层序遍历的非递归解法。

思路一：先序遍历，递归 我们需要接入输入和输出字符串流 istringstream 和 ostringstream，对于序列化，我们从根节点开始，如果节点存在，则将值存入输出字符串流，然后分别对其左右子节点递归调用序列化函数即可。对于反序列化，我们先读入第一个字符，以此生成一个根节点，然后再对根节点的左右子节点递归调用去序列化函数即可

思路二：层序遍历，非递归 层序遍历的非递归解法，这种方法略微复杂一些，我们需要借助 queue 来做，本质是 BFS 算法，就是 BFS 算法的常规套路稍作修改即可

Solutions

解法一

class Codec {
public:
    // Encodes a tree to a single string.
    string serialize(TreeNode* root) {
        ostringstream out;
        serialize(root, out);
        return out.str();
    }
    // Decodes your encoded data to tree.
    TreeNode* deserialize(string data) {
        istringstream in(data);
        return deserialize(in);
    }
private:
    void serialize(TreeNode *root, ostringstream &out) {
        if (root != nullptr) {
            out << root->val << ' ';
            serialize(root->left, out);
            serialize(root->right, out);
        } else {
            out << "# ";
        }
    }
    TreeNode* deserialize(istringstream &in) {
        string val;
        in >> val;
        if (val == "#") return nullptr;
        TreeNode *root = new TreeNode(stoi(val));
        root->left = deserialize(in);
        root->right = deserialize(in);
        return root;
    }
};

解法二

class Codec {
public:
    // Encodes a tree to a single string.
    string serialize(TreeNode* root) {
        ostringstream out;
        queue<TreeNode*> q;
        if (root) q.push(root);
        while (!q.empty()) {
            TreeNode *t = q.front(); q.pop();
            if (t) {
                out << t->val << ' ';
                q.push(t->left);
                q.push(t->right);
            } else {
                out << "# ";
            }
        }
        return out.str();
    }
    // Decodes your encoded data to tree.
    TreeNode* deserialize(string data) {
        if (data.empty()) return nullptr;
        istringstream in(data);
        queue<TreeNode*> q;
        string val;
        in >> val;
        TreeNode *res = new TreeNode(stoi(val)), *cur = res;
        q.push(cur);
        while (!q.empty()) {
            TreeNode *t = q.front(); q.pop();
            if (!(in >> val)) break;
            if (val != "#") {
                cur = new TreeNode(stoi(val));
                q.push(cur);
                t->left = cur;
            }
            if (!(in >> val)) break;
            if (val != "#") {
                cur = new TreeNode(stoi(val));
                q.push(cur);
                t->right = cur;
            }
        }
        return res;
    }
};