Size of the array and the empty nodes

[A-Mehdi]

I have two questions:

1. The homework description says that the size of the input array will be 8. Is this always true, even when there are only 5 nodes in the tree?
2. Can we assume that 0 value means an empty node? For example if we have tree with 5 nodes then input array will be [0, 16, 10, 8, 9, 7, 0, 0]?

[ahcheongL]

1. Yes
2. No, a node can have zero value, an empty node will have garbage values (i.e. any values).

[bltnynk]

1. Yes

So do we have to change the defined macro MAX from 16 to 8? ALso I think MAX is a constant, not a non-determinitic input value from the environment, right?

[ahcheongL]

We set MAX as 16 constant because of the overflow problem. If you try to access the left child of x[7], then you might access x[left(7)], which is x[14]. Please just let it be 16 constant, and think of it as an 8-length array.

[bltnynk]

We set MAX as 16 constant because of the overflow problem. If you try to access the left child of x[7], then you might access x[left(7)], which is x[14]. Please just let it be 16 constant, and think of it as an 8-length array.

But left child is already constrainted by (l<=h_size && x[l]>x[i]) so I think overflow would not happen?

[ahcheongL]

It depends on your verification code.