Tree Implementations - Data Structures and Abstractions with Java - page 605

public BinaryTree(T rootData, BinaryTree<T> leftTree,
BinaryTree<T> rightTree)

{

privateSetTree(rootData, leftTree, rightTree);
} // end constructor

public void setTree(T rootData)
{

root = new BinaryNode<T>(rootData);
} // end setTree

public void setTree(T rootData, BinaryTreeInterface<T> leftTree,
BinaryTreeInterface<T> rightTree)

{

privateSetTree(rootData, (BinaryTree<T>)leftTree,
(BinaryTree<T>)rightTree);

} // end setTree

private void privateSetTree(T rootData, BinaryTree<T> leftTree,
BinaryTree<T> rightTree)

{

< FIRST DRAFT - See Segments 24.5 - 24.8 for improvements. >
root = new BinaryNode<T>(rootData);

if (leftTree != null )
root.setLeftChild(leftTree.root);

if (rightTree != null )
root.setRightChild(rightTree.root);
} // end privateSetTree

< Implementations of getRootData , getHeight , getNumberOfNodes , isEmpty , clear ,
and the methods specified in TreeIteratorInterface are here. >
. . .
} // end BinaryTree

Programming Tip: No cast is needed when you pass an instance of BinaryTree to a
method whose parameter has the type BinaryTreeInterface . The converse, however,
requires a cast.

The Method privateSetTree
24.5

A problem. The implementation of privateSetTree just given is really not sufficient to han-
dle all possible uses of the method. Suppose that the client defines three distinct instances of
BinaryTree — treeA , treeB , and treeC —and executes the statement
treeA.setTree(a, treeB, treeC);