CSC403: Trees: The winner is...

CSC403: Tree code: The winner is... [22/29]

    public int size () {
        return size (root);
    }
    private int size (Node x) {
        if (x == null) return 0;
        int sz = 1;
        sz += size (x.left);
        sz += size (x.right);
        return sz;
    }

    public int size () {
       if (root == null) return 0;
       return size (root);
    }
    private int size (Node x) {
        int sz = 1;
        if (x.left != null) sz += size (x.left);
        if (x.right != null) sz += size (x.right);
        return sz;
    }

What are the advantages of each approach?

In general, which should you prefer?

Nullable has one static conditional (if statement). Non-nullable has three!

However, we have exactly the same number of dynamic conditionals (executions of the if statement).

Nullable has about twice as many dynamic function calls! Count them!