Where are return values stored and how/can they be incremented?

Question

I've done my fair share of reading and researching but I still don't 100% get it. For this solution of " Minimum Depth of Binary Tree", the idea of having multiple returns in a recursive function is killing me. I'm not exactly sure how the value for the "minimum depth" is being incremented, and I understand it may have something to do with my misunderstanding of return statements work. Please help, thank you.

int minDepth(Node *root) {
        if(!root) return 0;
        
        if(!root->left) return 1 + minDepth(root->right);
        
        
        if(!root->right) return 1 + minDepth(root->left);
      
        return 1+min(minDepth(root->left),minDepth(root->right));
    }

Answer 1

If it helps, logically, what you have above could just as well have been written

int minDepth(Node *root) {

    int result;

    if(!root) 
        result = 0;
    else if(!root->left) 
        result = 1 + minDepth(root->right);
    else if(!root->right) 
        result = 1 + minDepth(root->left);
    else
        result = 1 + min(minDepth(root->left), minDepth(root->right));

    return result;
}