| name | tree-rerooting |
| description | Re-root an undirected tree from any node using DFS/BFS. Use when changing the point of view in a tree, finding paths between nodes, or reparenting tree structures. |
| topic | Tree Re-Rooting (POV) |
| token_cost | 120 |
| related | ["tree-zipper","dfs-vs-bfs"] |
| keywords | ["re-root","reroot","pov","point of view","tree rotation","change root","from_pov","reparent","path between nodes","undirected tree"] |
When to use
Re-rooting an undirected tree from a new node.
Rules
- Build an undirected adjacency map (parent↔children become symmetric neighbor sets)
- Do DFS/BFS from the target node
- Every node you visit gets its parent set to the node you came from
- Its children become all neighbors minus that parent
- Path-between(a, b): re-root at a, then walk from b up parent pointers until you hit a
- If the target node is not in the tree, return None (not an error)
- NEVER mutate the original tree when re-rooting — build a fresh node structure
- ALWAYS keep the original tree intact so repeated from_pov calls work correctly
Complexity
O(N) per re-root.
Example
Path between a and b: build adjacency map, DFS from a as root, then walk from b up parent pointers to a. Always build a fresh structure — never mutate the original tree.
