Find the height of a tree

Question

Can you make me understand this code to find the height of a binary tree:

   int lDepth = maxDepth(node->left);
   int rDepth = maxDepth(node->right);

   /* use the larger one */
   if (lDepth > rDepth) 
       return(lDepth+1);
   else return(rDepth+1);

I am not able to understand how " int lDepth = maxDepth(node->left); " will return the height of left subtree as when it reaches the base case...it will return 0. (code is incomplete).

Answer 1

i am not able to understand how "int lDepth = maxDepth(node->left);" will return the height of left subtree as when it reaches the base case...it will return 0. (code is incomplete).

True it will return 0, but don't forget the +1, imagine it reaches a case where the tree has a left and right node (no grandchild), the height of the left is 0 and of the right is 0 so depth of the parent is the depth of largest +1 which is 1