Given: a binary tree composed of nodes. Each node is stored as a hash, and contains (at least) 3 keys: 'd' is a data string, 'l' is the left node, and 'r' is the right node. The tree has been pre-made such that all nodes that are in the 'l' (left) node are less than or equal to the 'd' element, and similar for nodes that are greater than in the right node. A value 0 is used for the 'l' or 'r' position if there are no further nodes that satisfy it. You are given $t, a reference to the top node, and $s, a string that you want to search for.

Find: the perl golf best solution for a subroutine that returns the node that $s is in, or 0 if no such node exists. Do not assume that the tree is well balanced. For avoiding problems with lots of excess characters, assume that you can avoid the 'use strict'.

My current best attempt is 95 characters:

sub f{($s,$t)=@_;while($t->{d}ne$s){$t=($s lt $t->{d})?$t->{l}:$t->{r}
+;return if$t==0;}return$t;}
[download]

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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain

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