Deleting an node in BST - binary-search-tree

Question

This is not an homework. I am just totally blocked on this. I know what to do but I am having difficulty manipulating the tree. please help.
I am trying to delete and node from an BST. I am able to lookup and find the parent and store it an tree.
package com.test.binarytree;
public class BinaryTreeDelete {
private Node root;
//create null binary tree
public BinaryTreeDelete(){
root = null;
}
//delete
public void delete(int target){
root = delete(root, target);
}
public Node delete(Node node, int target){
NodeWithParent temp = lookupFindParent(root, null, target);
if( node == null){
return null;
}
else{
if( node.left == null || node.right == null) //leaf node
{
//WHAT DO I DO HERE
//temp.parent.left = null;
//temp.parent.right = null;
//return null;
}
if( node.left != null && node.right == null ) //one child only on left
{
//WHAT DO I DO HERE
}
if( node.right != null && node.left == null ) //one child only on right
{
//WHAT DO I DO HERE
}
if( node.left != null && node.right != null ) //two children
{
//WHAT DO I DO HERE
}
}
return null;
}
private NodeWithParent lookupFindParent(Node node, Node parentNode, int target){
if( node == null ){
return null;
}
if( node.data == target){
return new NodeWithParent(node, parentNode);
}
else if( node.data > target ){
parentNode = node;
return lookupFindParent(node.left, parentNode, target);
}
else{
parentNode = node;
return lookupFindParent(node.right, parentNode, target);
}
}
//insert
public void insert(int data){
root = insert(root, data);
}
public Node insert (Node node, int data){
if(node == null){
node = new Node(data);
}
else{
if( data <= node.data ){
node.left = insert(node.left, data);
}
else{
node.right = insert(node.right, data);
}
}
return node;
}
//print tree
public void printTree(){
printTree(root);
System.out.println();
}
//print tree
private void printTree(Node node) {
if (node == null) return;
// left, node itself, right
printTree(node.left);
System.out.print(node.data + " ");
printTree(node.right);
}
//node class
public static class Node{
Node left;
Node right;
int data;
Node(int newNode){
data = newNode;
left = null;
right = null;
}
}
//node class
public static class NodeWithParent{
Node current;
Node parent;
NodeWithParent(Node current, Node parent){
this.current = current;
this.parent = parent;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
BinaryTreeDelete bt = new BinaryTreeDelete();
//insert with inserts - tree increases on right if inserted in order
bt = new BinaryTreeDelete();
bt.insert(5);
bt.insert(3);
bt.insert(7);
bt.insert(1);
bt.insert(4);
bt.insert(6);
bt.insert(9);
bt.printTree();
//bt.delete(3);
//bt.delete(4);
//bt.delete(6);
bt.delete(9);
//bt.delete(5);
bt.printTree();
}
}

Answer 1

I'm going to provide you the logic (that means you have to write the code yourself) of how to delete a node in a BST.
There are three cases.
Node to be deleted has both left and right child as null: Delete the node and make the parent point to null.
Node to be deleted has either left or right child (but not both) as null: Delete the node but make sure that the parent points to the valid child of the to-be-deleted node.
Node to be deleted has nether left child nor right child as null: In this case, you have to find the next greater element of the to-be-deleted node. This next greater element is the least element of the right subtree of the to-be-deleted node. Since this is the least element, it has at least one of its child as null. So swap the values of the to-be-deleted node with the next greater node. After you swap, delete this next greater node using points 1 and 2 (whichever is fitting to the situation). Now, why the next greater node and not any node. Because if you replace a node with its next greater node, the BST remains a BST. Try it out in an example and it will be clear.