Find height of a binary tree

See complete series on data structures here:

In this lesson, we have written code to find height of a binary tree using a simple recursion.

[madhav]

Can't belive these 6years old videos are so much self explanatory and powerful, thanxx mann, you left ds and algo legacy for us

[xVermyy]

Your videos helped me understand in 10 minutes what my data structures professor couldn't help me understand in a semester. Thank you :)

[sparshbohra]

source code for people confused:

int height (struct bstnode *root) {
if (root == NULL) {
return -1;
}
else {
int left = height (root->left);
int right = height (root->right);

int height = (left < right) ? right+1 : left+1;
return height;
}
}

[mayank_upadhyay_]

Recursion feels like, I am looking in a mirror at myself, who is already looking in his mirror at himself.

[WebgaraCom]

You are here in data structure. You save us in final exam. Please keep going!

[easynow]

excellent video! especially the fact that for the base case (return -1) you showed how it will work for a leaf node..
here is the Python code:
def height(root):
if not root:
return -1
heightRight = height(root.right)
heightLeft = height(root.left)
return max(heightRight, heightLeft) + 1

[VarunVishwakarma]

Why did u stop making videos? Please continue. You are the one who made DS easy for me.

[qRpKsJt]

if you know the logic of height and depth..
Directly go to 3:05

[mcirami]

Thank you so much for the videos. I've learned a lot from you.  One thing I don't understand about this is how the actual value of the height is found?  How is it returning a count of left edges and right to determine which is max?

[codysiegmann]

Awesome explanation of the recursive calls as well as the base case (exit condition) and how changing -1 and 0 in the base case will calculate the height of the tree or the number of nodes in the tree, respectively.

[chandramohanrai]

your videos are a student can learn starting from 0 to 90% of data structure in just 3-4 days.
can u share link for source code of height of b.s.t.

[tringuyenucminh]

oh god, you are a good teacher. Easy to understand.

[jm.]

Such a great explanation! Helped me to understand balanced and unbalanced trees!

[Name-pnrf]

can we do the if statement as

if(node.left==null && node.right==null){
return 0;
}

I did it and it gave me errors...why did this happen?

[lravikiran]

sir your logic on how u use recursion for finding the sum is

[krishnasai]

Is it BINARY TREE or BINARY SEARCH
There is a lot of difference between those two
Binary tree :-Tree where each node has up to two leaves

1
/ \
2 3
Binary search tree :-Used for searching. A binary tree where the left child contains only nodes with values less than the parent node, and where the right child only contains nodes with values greater than or equal to the parent.

Hope that this is helpful to anybody :)

[rashmih]

somebody reply please
dont we have to make a count here !!
like we have to increment the count each time we parse right !

[VISHALBHANDARE]

int maxDepth(struct node* node)
{
if (node==NULL)
return -1;
else
{
/* compute the depth of each subtree */
int lDepth = maxDepth(node->left);
int rDepth = maxDepth(node->right);

/* use the larger one */
if (lDepth > rDepth)
return(lDepth+1);
else return(rDepth+1);
}
}


#functionInC

[hatsuharu]

You explain the concepts really well. Thank you!

[vijaykari]

As we use in general terms,  
height - measured from bottom to top(i.e., )from ground level to how much height it went
depth - measured from top to bottom (i.e., ) from ground level to how deep it went..