BST method returns Segfault - c++

Question

I am writing a method to check if a given tree is a BST using the inorder traversal method. On executing this method, I get a segfault. Can someone help me correct it?
here, maximum stores the largest value in the BST, and k is initialized to 0. The BST is assumed to have unique positive values. isNull(root) checks if the current node is a null node or not.
bool check(BstNode* root)
{
if (root->data==maximum) return true;
isNull(root);
check(root->left);
if (root->data>k)
{
k=root->data;
}
else
{
return false;
}
check(root->right);
}

Answer 1

Every time when you call check(root->left) and check(root->right), I suppose you need to add sth to determine the left and the right branch is null or not. In your code, you just assume that there is sth in left and right branch and call the check function. I think that's the main reason.

Answer 2

You shouldn't need to specify the maximum value. An elegant solution can be found here

Answer 3

There are two approaches you can do this.
One is top-down approach, first check if current node is valid, if so, then check two subtree. This is very intuitive. you can find the code from #lerman's post:
struct TreeNode {
int data;
TreeNode *left;
TreeNode *right;
};
bool isBST(TreeNode *node, int minData, int maxData) {
if(node == NULL) return true;
if(node->data < minData || node->data > maxData) return false;
return isBST(node->left, minData, node->data) && isBST(node->right, node->data, maxData);
}
if(isBST(root, INT_MIN, INT_MAX)) {
puts("This is a BST.");
} else {
puts("This is NOT a BST!");
}
The other way is a bottom-up approach: first check left substree then right substree and check current tree at last. below is the code for this approach.
bool isValidBST(TreeNode *root) {
int mmin, mmax;
return helper(root, mmin, mmax);
}
bool helper(TreeNode* root, int& mmin, int& mmax) {
if(!root) {
mmin = INT_MAX;
mmax = INT_MIN;
return true;
}
int leftmin, leftmax, rightmin, rightmax;
if(!helper(root->left, leftmin, leftmax))
return false;
if(!helper(root->right, rightmin, rightmax))
return false;
if(root->val > leftmax && root->val < rightmin) {
mmin = min(min(leftmin, rightmin), root->val);
mmax = max(max(leftmax, rightmax), root->val);
return true;
}
else
return false;
}
You might notice that the first approach is pre-order traversal and the second approach is post-order traversal. inorder traversal in inappropriate here because it conflicts with the definition of BST.