Flatten Binary Tree to Linked List in C++

Suppose we have a binary tree; we have to flatten it into linked list in place. So if the tree is like −

The output tree will be −

To solve this, we will follow these steps −

• ser prev := null

• Define a recursive function solve(), that will take root as input.

• if root is null, then return

• solve(right of root)

• solve(left of root)

• right of root := prev, left of root := null

• prev := root

Let us see the following implementation to get better understanding −

Example

 Live Demo

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
class TreeNode{
   public:
   int val;
   TreeNode *left, *right;
   TreeNode(int data){
      val = data;
      left = NULL;
      right = NULL;
   }
};
void insert(TreeNode **root, int val){
   queue<TreeNode*> q;
   q.push(*root);
   while(q.size()){
      TreeNode *temp = q.front();
      q.pop();
      if(!temp->left){
         if(val != NULL)
            temp->left = new TreeNode(val);
         else
            temp->left = new TreeNode(0);
         return;
      }else{
         q.push(temp->left);
      }
      if(!temp->right){
         if(val != NULL)
            temp->right = new TreeNode(val);
         else
            temp->right = new TreeNode(0);
         return;
      }else{
         q.push(temp->right);
      }
   }
}
TreeNode *make_tree(vector<int> v){
   TreeNode *root = new TreeNode(v[0]);
   for(int i = 1; i<v.size(); i++){
      insert(&root, v[i]);
   }
   return root;
}
class Solution {
   public:
   TreeNode* prev = NULL;
   void flatten(TreeNode* root) {
      if(!root) return;
         flatten(root->right);
      flatten(root->left);
      root->right = prev;
      root->left = NULL;
      prev = root;
   }
};
main(){
   vector<int> v = {1,2,5,3,4};
   TreeNode *root = make_tree(v);
   Solution ob;
   (ob.flatten(root));
   TreeNode *ptr = root;
   while(ptr != NULL && ptr->val != 0){
      cout << ptr->val << ", ";
      ptr = ptr->right;
   }
}

Input

[1,2,5,3,4]

Output

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,