Iterative program to count leaf nodes in a Binary Tree

Last Updated : 26 Sep, 2024

Given a Binary Tree, the task is to count leaves in it. A node is a leaf node if both left and right child nodes of it are NULL.

Example:

Input:

Output: 3
Explanation: Three leaf nodes are 3, 4 and 5 as both of their left and right child is NULL.

Input:

Output: 3
Explanation: Three leaf nodes are 4, 6 and 7 as both of their left and right child is NULL.

Approach:

The idea is to use level order traversal. During traversal, if we find a node whose left and right children are NULL, we increment count.

Follow the steps below to solve the problem:

Create a queue to traverse in level order manner and a variable count to keep track of the number of leaf nodes. Start by enqueuing the root node.
While the queue is not empty, proceed with the traversal.
- Dequeue the front node from the queue and check its children.
- If both the left and right children of the current node are NULL, increment the count variable by 1, indicating that a leaf node has been found.
- If the current node has a left child, enqueue it into the queue. Similarly, if it has a right child, enqueue that child also.
- Repeat the process until all nodes have been processed (i.e., the queue is empty).
Finally, return the count of leaf nodes found during the traversal.

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

C++

// C++ code to count leaf nodes in a binary tree
// using level order traversal
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

struct Node {
    int data;
    Node *left, *right;

    Node(int val) {
        data = val;
        left = right = nullptr;
    }
};

// Function to count the leaf nodes in a binary tree
int countLeaves(Node* root) {
  
    // If the root is null, return 0
    if (root == nullptr) {
        return 0;
    }

    // Initialize a queue for level order traversal
    queue<Node*> q;
    q.push(root);

    int count = 0;

    // Traverse the tree using level order traversal
    while (!q.empty()) {
        Node* curr = q.front();
        q.pop();

        // Check if the current node is a leaf node
        if (curr->left == nullptr && curr->right == nullptr) {
            count++;
        }

        // Enqueue left and right children if they exist
        if (curr->left != nullptr) {
            q.push(curr->left);
        }
        if (curr->right != nullptr) {
            q.push(curr->right);
        }
    }

    return count;
}

int main() {
  
    // Representation of input binary tree
    //        1
    //       / \
    //      2   3
    //     / \
    //    4   5
    Node* root = new Node(1);
    root->left = new Node(2);
    root->right = new Node(3);
    root->left->left = new Node(4);
    root->left->right = new Node(5);

    cout << countLeaves(root) << "\n";

    return 0;
}

Java

// Java code to count leaf nodes in a binary tree
// using level order traversal
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Queue;

class Node {
    int data;
    Node left, right;

    Node(int val) {
        data = val;
        left = right = null;
    }
}

class GfG {

    // Function to count the leaf nodes in a binary tree
    static int countLeaves(Node root) {
      
        // If root is NULL, return 0
        if (root == null) {
            return 0;
        }

        // Initialize a queue for level order traversal
        Queue<Node> queue = new LinkedList<>();
        queue.add(root);
        
        int count = 0;

        // Traverse the tree using level order traversal
        while (!queue.isEmpty()) {
            Node curr = queue.poll();

            // Check if the current node is a leaf node
            if (curr.left == null && curr.right == null) {
                count++;
            }

            // Enqueue left and right children if they exist
            if (curr.left != null) {
                queue.add(curr.left);
            }
            if (curr.right != null) {
                queue.add(curr.right);
            }
        }

        return count;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
      
        // Representation of input binary tree
        //        1
        //       / \
        //      2   3
        //     / \
        //    4   5
        Node root = new Node(1);
        root.left = new Node(2);
        root.right = new Node(3);
        root.left.left = new Node(4);
        root.left.right = new Node(5);

        System.out.println(countLeaves(root));
    }
}

Python

# Python code to count leaf nodes in a binary tree
# using level order traversal
from collections import deque

class Node:
    def __init__(self, data):
        self.data = data
        self.left = None
        self.right = None

def countLeaves(root):
  
    # If root is None, return 0
    if root is None:
        return 0

    # Initialize a queue for level order traversal
    queue = deque([root])
    
    count = 0

    # Traverse the tree using level order traversal
    while queue:
        curr = queue.popleft()

        # Check if the current node is a leaf node
        if curr.left is None and curr.right is None:
            count += 1

        # Enqueue left and right children if they exist
        if curr.left is not None:
            queue.append(curr.left)
        if curr.right is not None:
            queue.append(curr.right)

    return count

if __name__ == "__main__":
  
    # Representation of input binary tree
    #        1
    #       / \
    #      2   3
    #     / \
    #    4   5
    root = Node(1)
    root.left = Node(2)
    root.right = Node(3)
    root.left.left = Node(4)
    root.left.right = Node(5)

    print(countLeaves(root))

// C# code to count leaf nodes in a binary tree
// using level order traversal
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Node {
    public int data;
    public Node left, right;

    public Node(int val) {
        data = val;
        left = right = null;
    }
}

class GfG {

    static int CountLeaves(Node root) {
      
        // If the root is null, return 0
        if (root == null) {
            return 0;
        }

        // Initialize a queue for level order traversal
        Queue<Node> queue = new Queue<Node>();
        queue.Enqueue(root);
        
        // Variable to count leaf nodes
        int count = 0;

        // Traverse the tree using level order traversal
        while (queue.Count > 0) {
            Node curr = queue.Dequeue();

            // Check if the current node is a leaf node
            if (curr.left == null && curr.right == null) {
                count++;
            }

            // Enqueue left and right children if they exist
            if (curr.left != null) {
                queue.Enqueue(curr.left);
            }
            if (curr.right != null) {
                queue.Enqueue(curr.right);
            }
        }

        return count;
    }

    static void Main(string[] args) {
      
        // Representation of input binary tree
        //        1
        //       / \
        //      2   3
        //     / \
        //    4   5
        Node root = new Node(1);
        root.left = new Node(2);
        root.right = new Node(3);
        root.left.left = new Node(4);
        root.left.right = new Node(5);

        Console.WriteLine(CountLeaves(root));
    }
}

JavaScript

// JavaScript code to count leaf nodes in a binary tree
// using level order traversal
class Node {
    constructor(data) {
        this.data = data;
        this.left = null;
        this.right = null;
    }
}

function countLeaves(root) {

    // If the root is null, return 0
    if (root === null) {
        return 0;
    }

    // Initialize a queue for level order traversal
    const queue = [];
    queue.push(root);

    let count = 0;

    // Traverse the tree using level order traversal
    while (queue.length > 0) {
        const curr = queue.shift();

        // Check if the current node is a leaf node
        if (curr.left === null && curr.right === null) {
            count++;
        }

        // Enqueue left and right children if they exist
        if (curr.left !== null) {
            queue.push(curr.left);
        }
        if (curr.right !== null) {
            queue.push(curr.right);
        }
    }
    
    return count;
}

// Representation of input binary tree
//        1
//       / \
//      2   3
//     / \
//    4   5
let root = new Node(1);
root.left = new Node(2);
root.right = new Node(3);
root.left.left = new Node(4);
root.left.right = new Node(5);

console.log(countLeaves(root));

Output

Time Complexity: O(n), where n is the number of nodes in the tree, since each node is visited exactly once.
Auxiliary space: O(n), space used for queue.

Related article:

Program to count leaf nodes in a binary tree

Count full nodes in a Binary tree (Iterative and Recursive)

Mr. Somesh Awasthi

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