// very hard to remove recursion, so only adjust pred/succ links
protected FHthreadedNode<E> remove(FHthreadedNode<E> root, E x) {
int compareResult; // avoid multiple calls to compareTo()
FHthreadedNode<E> tempRoot;
if (root == null) return null;
compareResult = x.compareTo(root.data);
if (compareResult < 0) {
if (!root.lftThread) root.lftChild = remove(root.lftChild, x);
} else if (compareResult > 0) {
if (!root.rtThread) root.rtChild = remove(root.rtChild, x);
}
// found the node
else if (!(root.lftThread) && !(root.rtThread)) {
// two real children
root.data = findMin(root.rtChild).data;
root.rtChild = remove(root.rtChild, root.data);
} else {
// one or two "fake" children => at least one thread
redirectThreadsPointingToMe(root);
// if a full leaf, we have to modify one of parent's thread flags
if (root.lftThread && root.rtThread) {
tempRoot = adjustParentThreadFlagsAndUnlink(root);
// in case this was final node in tree
if (root.lftChild == null && root.rtChild == null) mRoot = null;
root = tempRoot;
} else
// at least one real child, so we copy to parent
root = (!(root.lftThread)) ? root.lftChild : root.rtChild;
mSize--;
}
return root;
}
