Final answer:
The removeLeaves method can be implemented in a recursive manner to remove the leaves of a tree by traversing the tree using a depth-first search algorithm.
Step-by-step explanation:
The removeLeaves method can be implemented in a recursive manner to remove the leaves of a tree. A leaf node is a node that does not have any child nodes. To remove the leaves, we can traverse the tree using a depth-first search algorithm and remove any node that is a leaf.
Here is the step-by-step implementation:
- If the given tree is empty or has only one node (root), return null.
- Recursively call the removeLeaves method on the left and right subtrees.
- If the current node is a leaf (no left or right child), return null. Otherwise, return the current node.
By following this recursive approach, we can remove all the leaf nodes from the tree.