Post order traversal of binary tree without recursion

Patrik Svensson picture Patrik Svensson · Aug 18, 2009 · Viewed 101k times · Source

What is the algorithm for doing a post order traversal of a binary tree WITHOUT using recursion?

Answer

tcb picture tcb · Apr 18, 2013

Here's the version with one stack and without a visited flag:

private void postorder(Node head) {
  if (head == null) {
    return;
  }
  LinkedList<Node> stack = new LinkedList<Node>();
  stack.push(head);

  while (!stack.isEmpty()) {
    Node next = stack.peek();

    boolean finishedSubtrees = (next.right == head || next.left == head);
    boolean isLeaf = (next.left == null && next.right == null);
    if (finishedSubtrees || isLeaf) {
      stack.pop();
      System.out.println(next.value);
      head = next;
    }
    else {
      if (next.right != null) {
        stack.push(next.right);
      }
      if (next.left != null) {
        stack.push(next.left);
      }
    }
  }
}