




Sponsored
Sponsored
In this approach, we will perform an in-order traversal of the BST using an explicit stack to store the node values in a sorted manner. As we traverse the tree, we will calculate the minimum difference between consecutive values.
Time Complexity: O(N), where N is the number of nodes. Each node is visited exactly once.
Space Complexity: O(H), where H is the height of the tree, representing the maximum size of the stack.
1class TreeNode:
2    def __init__(self, val=0, left=None, right=None):
3        self.val = val
4        self.left = left
5        self.right = right
6
7class Solution:
8    def minDiffInBST(self, root: TreeNode) -> int:
9        stack, prev_value, min_diff = [], None, float('inf')
10        current = root
11        
12        while stack or current:
13            while current:
14                stack.append(current)
15                current = current.left
16            current = stack.pop()
17            if prev_value is not None:
18                min_diff = min(min_diff, current.val - prev_value)
19            prev_value = current.val
20            current = current.right
21
22        return min_diff
23The Python solution uses a procedural stack-based in-order traversal to simulate recursive behavior. During the traversal, the minimum absolute difference is calculated between successive node values.
This approach relies on a recursive in-order traversal of the BST to compute the minimum absolute difference. We maintain a global variable to track the smallest difference encountered during traversal.
Time Complexity: O(N)
Space Complexity: O(H), due to recursive call stack.
1#include<limits>
using namespace std;
struct TreeNode {
    int val;
    TreeNode *left;
    TreeNode *right;
    TreeNode() : val(0), left(nullptr), right(nullptr) {}
    TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(nullptr), right(nullptr) {}
    TreeNode(int x, TreeNode *left, TreeNode *right) : val(x), left(left), right(right) {}
};
class Solution {
    int minDiff = numeric_limits<int>::max();
    int prevValue = -1;
public:
    void inOrder(TreeNode* node) {
        if (node == nullptr) return;
        inOrder(node->left);
        if (prevValue >= 0) {
            minDiff = min(minDiff, node->val - prevValue);
        }
        prevValue = node->val;
        inOrder(node->right);
    }
    int minDiffInBST(TreeNode* root) {
        prevValue = -1;
        minDiff = numeric_limits<int>::max();
        inOrder(root);
        return minDiff;
    }
};
In C++, recursive in-order traversal adjusts a class member as it traverses and computes minimal differences. The method offers a sleek encapsulation of pointer handling, benefiting from C++ class structures.