Print Left View of a Binary Tree

Given a Binary Tree, print left view of it. Left view of a Binary Tree is set of nodes visible when tree is visited from left side.

Examples:

Input : 
                 1
               /   \
              2     3
             / \     \
            4   5     6             
Output : 1 2 4

Input :
        1
      /   \
    2       3
      \   
        4  
          \
            5
             \
               6
Output :1 2 4 5 6

Recommended: Please solve it on “PRACTICE” first, before moving on to the solution.

The left view contains all nodes that are first nodes in their levels. A simple solution is to do level order traversal and print the first node in every level.

The problem can also be solved using simple recursive traversal. We can keep track of the level of a node by passing a parameter to all recursive calls. The idea is to keep track of the maximum level also. Whenever we see a node whose level is more than maximum level so far, we print the node because this is the first node in its level (Note that we traverse the left subtree before right subtree). Following is the implementation-

C++

// C++ program to print left 
// view of Binary Tree 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 
  
class node { 
public: 
    int data; 
    node *left, *right; 
}; 
  
// A utility function to create a new Binary Tree node 
node* newNode(int item) 
{ 
    node* temp = new node(); 
    temp->data = item; 
    temp->left = temp->right = NULL; 
    return temp; 
} 
  
// Recursive function to print left view of a binary tree. 
void leftViewUtil(node* root, int level, int* max_level) 
{ 
    // Base Case 
    if (root == NULL) 
        return; 
  
    // If this is the first node of its level 
    if (*max_level < level) { 
        cout << root->data << "\t"; 
        *max_level = level; 
    } 
  
    // Recur for left and right subtrees 
    leftViewUtil(root->left, level + 1, max_level); 
    leftViewUtil(root->right, level + 1, max_level); 
} 
  
// A wrapper over leftViewUtil() 
void leftView(node* root) 
{ 
    int max_level = 0; 
    leftViewUtil(root, 1, &max_level); 
} 
  
// Driver code 
int main() 
{ 
    node* root = newNode(12); 
    root->left = newNode(10); 
    root->right = newNode(30); 
    root->right->left = newNode(25); 
    root->right->right = newNode(40); 
  
    leftView(root); 
  
    return 0; 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by rathbhupendra 

C

// C program to print left view of Binary Tree 
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
  
struct node { 
    int data; 
    struct node *left, *right; 
}; 
  
// A utility function to create a new Binary Tree node 
struct node* newNode(int item) 
{ 
    struct node* temp = (struct node*)malloc(sizeof(struct node)); 
    temp->data = item; 
    temp->left = temp->right = NULL; 
    return temp; 
} 
  
// Recursive function to print left view of a binary tree. 
void leftViewUtil(struct node* root, int level, int* max_level) 
{ 
    // Base Case 
    if (root == NULL) 
        return; 
  
    // If this is the first node of its level 
    if (*max_level < level) { 
        printf("%d\t", root->data); 
        *max_level = level; 
    } 
  
    // Recur for left and right subtrees 
    leftViewUtil(root->left, level + 1, max_level); 
    leftViewUtil(root->right, level + 1, max_level); 
} 
  
// A wrapper over leftViewUtil() 
void leftView(struct node* root) 
{ 
    int max_level = 0; 
    leftViewUtil(root, 1, &max_level); 
} 
  
// Driver Program to test above functions 
int main() 
{ 
    struct node* root = newNode(12); 
    root->left = newNode(10); 
    root->right = newNode(30); 
    root->right->left = newNode(25); 
    root->right->right = newNode(40); 
  
    leftView(root); 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Java

// Java program to print left view of binary tree 
  
/* Class containing left and right child of current 
node and key value*/
class Node { 
    int data; 
    Node left, right; 
  
    public Node(int item) 
    { 
        data = item; 
        left = right = null; 
    } 
} 
  
/* Class to print the left view */
class BinaryTree { 
    Node root; 
    static int max_level = 0; 
  
    // recursive function to print left view 
    void leftViewUtil(Node node, int level) 
    { 
        // Base Case 
        if (node == null) 
            return; 
  
        // If this is the first node of its level 
        if (max_level < level) { 
            System.out.print(" " + node.data); 
            max_level = level; 
        } 
  
        // Recur for left and right subtrees 
        leftViewUtil(node.left, level + 1); 
        leftViewUtil(node.right, level + 1); 
    } 
  
    // A wrapper over leftViewUtil() 
    void leftView() 
    { 
        leftViewUtil(root, 1); 
    } 
  
    /* testing for example nodes */
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        /* creating a binary tree and entering the nodes */
        BinaryTree tree = new BinaryTree(); 
        tree.root = new Node(12); 
        tree.root.left = new Node(10); 
        tree.root.right = new Node(30); 
        tree.root.right.left = new Node(25); 
        tree.root.right.right = new Node(40); 
  
        tree.leftView(); 
    } 
} 

Python

# Python program to print left view of Binary Tree 
  
# A binary tree node 
class Node: 
  
    # Constructor to create a new node 
    def __init__(self, data): 
        self.data = data 
        self.left = None
        self.right = None
  
  
# Recursive function pritn left view of a binary tree 
def leftViewUtil(root, level, max_level): 
      
    # Base Case 
    if root is None: 
        return
  
    # If this is the first node of its level 
    if (max_level[0] < level): 
        print "% d\t" %(root.data), 
        max_level[0] = level 
  
    # Recur for left and right subtree 
    leftViewUtil(root.left, level + 1, max_level) 
    leftViewUtil(root.right, level + 1, max_level) 
  
  
# A wrapper over leftViewUtil() 
def leftView(root): 
    max_level = [0] 
    leftViewUtil(root, 1, max_level) 
  
  
# Driver program to test above function 
root = Node(12) 
root.left = Node(10) 
root.right = Node(20) 
root.right.left = Node(25) 
root.right.right = Node(40) 
  
leftView(root) 
  
# This code is contributed by Nikhil Kumar Singh(nickzuck_007) 

C#

using System; 
  
// C# program to print left view of binary tree 
  
/* Class containing left and right child of current  
node and key value*/
public class Node { 
    public int data; 
    public Node left, right; 
  
    public Node(int item) 
    { 
        data = item; 
        left = right = null; 
    } 
} 
  
/* Class to print the left view */
public class BinaryTree { 
    public Node root; 
    public static int max_level = 0; 
  
    // recursive function to print left view 
    public virtual void leftViewUtil(Node node, int level) 
    { 
        // Base Case 
        if (node == null) { 
            return; 
        } 
  
        // If this is the first node of its level 
        if (max_level < level) { 
            Console.Write(" " + node.data); 
            max_level = level; 
        } 
  
        // Recur for left and right subtrees 
        leftViewUtil(node.left, level + 1); 
        leftViewUtil(node.right, level + 1); 
    } 
  
    // A wrapper over leftViewUtil() 
    public virtual void leftView() 
    { 
        leftViewUtil(root, 1); 
    } 
  
    /* testing for example nodes */
    public static void Main(string[] args) 
    { 
        /* creating a binary tree and entering the nodes */
        BinaryTree tree = new BinaryTree(); 
        tree.root = new Node(12); 
        tree.root.left = new Node(10); 
        tree.root.right = new Node(30); 
        tree.root.right.left = new Node(25); 
        tree.root.right.right = new Node(40); 
  
        tree.leftView(); 
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by Shrikant13 

Output:

12      10      25

Time Complexity: The function does a simple traversal of the tree, so the complexity is O(n).
Auxiliary Space: O(n), due to the stack space during recursive call.

This article is contributed by Ramsai Chinthamani. Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above

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My Personal Notes

Recommended: Please solve it on “PRACTICE” first, before moving on to the solution.

C++

C

Java

Python

C#

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