Question

My current insert method for my binary tree is not inserting to the right of any node that is the left child of its parent.
current code:

private BinaryTreeNode insert(BinaryTreeNode current, String word) {
    if (current == null) {
        current = new BinaryTreeNode(word);
    } else {
        if (word.compareToIgnoreCase(current.value) < 0) { // if smaller than current node
            if (current.left != null) {
                if (word.compareToIgnoreCase(current.left.value) < 0) {// check next node for lesser than,
                    current.left = (insert(current.left, word));
                }
            } else {
                current.left = new BinaryTreeNode(word);// iff current node is end of tree
                System.out.println(word + "left");
            }
        } else {
            if (current.right != null) { // if larger than current node
                current.right = (insert(current.right, word));
            } else {
                current.right = new BinaryTreeNode(word); // if current node is end of tree
                System.out.println(word + "right");
            }
        }
    }
    return current;
}

Answer 1

Your problem lies here:

if (word.compareToIgnoreCase(current.left.value) < 0) {// check next node for lesser than,
    current.left = (insert(current.left, word));
}

What are you expecting this to do? You already know you should be inserting to the left of the current node, but why are you re-checking the next node down here?