Binary Search Tree Remove

[foodyore]

I don't know why, but my remove function doesn't seem to operate properly. The rest of my code is fine, so I am trying to pinpoint the exact location of my error. The else if statement remove(root->left, data) should've been called twice, but it only called once. Is anyone able to assist me

BST* smallestNode(BST* root)
// precondition: T is not null
// postcondition: return the node in the subtree rooted at T that
//                has the smallest value
{
    if (root->left == NULL)
		return root;
    else 
		return smallestNode(root->left);
}


BST* remove(BST* root, int data){
	if (root == NULL)
		return 0;
	if (data == root->data){
		if(root->left == NULL && root->right == NULL){
			delete(root);
		}
		else if (root->left == NULL){
			cout <<"runs here????"<<endl;
			root = root->right;
			delete(root->right);
		}
		else if (root->right == NULL){
			cout<<"runs here?"<<endl;
			root = root->left;
			delete(root->left);
		}
		else if (root->left != NULL && root->right != NULL){
			BST* temp = smallestNode(root->right);
			root = temp;
			delete(temp);
		}
		
	}
	if (data > root->data){
		remove(root->right, data);
	}
	else if (data < root->data){
		cout <<"here"<<endl;
		remove(root->left, data);
	}
	return 0;
}



int main(){
	BST* tree = init(5);
	int a[8] = {1, 3, 5, 6, 3, 9, 10, 46};
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < sizeof(a)/sizeof(int); i++)
		insert(tree, a[i]);
	if (find(tree, 5))
		cout << "true" << endl;
	else
		cout <<"false"<<endl;
	remove(tree, 1);
	cout <<'\n';	
	inorderTraversal(tree);
}

[cire]

If line 18 executes, what happens on line 37? Your root no longer points to a valid object, so root->data is undefined behavior.

If line 23 executes and root->right has children, what happens to those children? Do previous pointers to the deleted node still point to the invalid node?

If line 28 executes and root->left has children, what happens to those children? Do previous pointers to the deleted node still point to the invalid node?

[foodyore]

Ok I think I see what you're saying. On line 35, I should return root, so that if I just delete the root, I would return Null as the value that is being removed.