How to find the closest element to a given key value in a binary search tree?

Question

Given a bst with integer values as keys how do I find the closest node to that key in a bst ? The BST is represented using a object of nodes (Java). Closest will be for eg 4

Answer 1

void closestNode(Node root, int k , Node result) {
    if(root == null) 
    {
       return;      //currently result is null , so it  will be the result
    }
    if(result == null || Math.abs(root.data - k) < Math.abs(result.data - k) )
    {
      result == root;
    }
    if(k < root.data)
    {
    closestNode(root.left, k, result)
    } 
    else 
    {
        closestNode(root.right, k, result);
    }

}