c - distance from root to a node of a binary tree -

i have find distance of node of binary tree root. solution is:

int distanceutil(struct node* root, int x, int dist) {     if (root == null) {         return -1;     }     else {         if (root->data == x) {             return dist;         }         return distanceutil(root->left, x, dist + 1) || distanceutil(root->right, x, dist + 1);     } }  int distance(struct node* root, int x) {     return distanceutil(root, x, 0); } 

but not work.in fact when in main do:

struct node* root = newnode(12); root->left = newnode(8); root->right = newnode(18); root->left->left = newnode(2); root->left->right = newnode(9); root->right->left = newnode(15); root->right->right = newnode(22); root->right->right->right = newnode(33); printf("il cammino : %d", distance(root,33)); getchar(); return 0; 

it returns 1, should return 3. can me? thank's.

you're using logical or operator || combine results of searching left tree , right tree. results of operator 0 or 1, won't result besides that.

what want return larger of 2 values of each subtree search. store result of searching each side, check larger , return that.

int distanceutil(struct node* root, int x, int dist) {     if (root == null) {         return -1;     }     if (root->data == x) {         return dist;     }      int left = distanceutil(root->left, x, dist + 1);     int right = distanceutil(root->right, x, dist + 1);     if (left > right) {         return left;     } else {         return right;     } }