Thread: problem returning struct member from function

I have a binary search tree made up of struct tree_st nodes. The struct has members TData (which is just a typedefed int) and pointers to left and right trees. Everything is working fine; test program takes int values and puts them in the tree and then prints out an in-order traversal.

But now I'm trying to add findMin and findMax functions. These also work just fine, as long as I print out the min or max in the function. If I try to return the value and print it out in main, I get the address instead! Weird.

Here's the findMin function:

Code:

Tdata 
findMin(const Tree t) 
{
  if (t == NULL) return -1;
  if (t->left == NULL)
  {
	printf("min: %d\n",t->data);       		
	return t->data;
  }
   else findMin(t->left);
}

In main, I do this:

Code:

printf("The min value is %d\n", findMin(t));

(The findMax function does the same but goes to the right.)

I put the printf in findMin as a test, and sure enough, it prints out the actual integer minimum. But then, returning t->data to main and printing it out prints out an address!!

Any guidance on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Just a guess: Is t->data of type TData or int ?

Have you tried int findMin(const Tree t) ? It may be that printf doesn't recognize your data type as an integer. I know that at least cout (c++) would not and print gibberish.

>>>>It may be that printf doesn't recognize your data type as an integer.

If its typedef'ed, I dont think it should be a problem. But thats only a guess. Could you post the entire/relevant code here please?

Anoop.

Here are the type declarations:

Code:

typedef int Tdata;

typedef struct tree_st
{
	Tdata data;
	struct tree_st * left;
	struct tree_st * right;
} * Tree;

The problem is not the printf; the numbers print out fine in the printf. It's once the number is returned that I get the address... at least, I think it's the address of the value. It's a large integer... don't think random garbage would look like that.

Haven't tried returning an int because what's the point of a typedef if you can't pass it around!? But, I guess I'll give it a shot.

thanks

Ack! Have to "return" the recursive call! Duh. If it wuz a snake it woulda bit me. Thanks.