> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://liuxue2010.gitbook.io/data-structure-and-algorithms/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://liuxue2010.gitbook.io/data-structure-and-algorithms/binary-tree-and-divide-conquer/minimum-depth-of-binary-tree.md).

# Minimum Depth of Binary Tree

Given a binary tree, find its minimum depth.

The minimum depth is the number of nodes along the shortest path from the root node down to the nearest leaf node.

## Example

Given a binary tree as follow:

```
  1
 / \ 
2   3
   / \
  4   5
```

The minimum depth is 2.

## Solution

判断左右子树是否为None，如果是None，则忽略。

只是这道题因为是判断最小深度，所以必须增加一个叶子的判断（因为如果一个节点如果只有左子树或者右子树，我们不能取它左右子树中小的作为深度，因为那样会是0，我们只有在叶子节点才能判断深度，而在求最大深度的时候，因为一定会取大的那个，所以不会有这个问题）。这道题同样是递归和非递归的解法

```
"""
Definition of TreeNode:
class TreeNode:
    def __init__(self, val):
        self.val = val
        self.left, self.right = None, None
"""
class Solution:
    """
    @param root: The root of binary tree.
    @return: An integer
    """ 
class Solution(object):
    def minDepth(self, root):
        """
        :type root: TreeNode
        :rtype: int
        """
        if root == None:
            return 0
        if root.left == None:
            return self.minDepth(root.right) + 1
        if root.right == None:
            return self.minDepth(root.left) + 1
        return min(self.minDepth(root.left), self.minDepth(root.right)) + 1
```