How to delete smallest node from a BST?

[joshgarza]

I have a recRemove function that recursively removes the given node. I also have a findMin function that finds the smallest node in the BST. I'm having trouble merging the two so that I can remove the smallest(or largest) node. This is what I tried doing but it just returned garbage: Full code: https://pastebin.com/HCVsUZ4S
BTW...how do I properly format my code so it comes out separately in the post? I can't seem to figure it out.

//remove min node in BST
node * extractMin()
{
return recRemove(root, findMin(root));
}
//delete node from tree
node * recRemove(node * root, double data)
{
//3 cases: no children, one child, 2 children
if (root == NULL)
{
return NULL;
}
else if (data < root->data)
{
root->left = recRemove(root->left, data);
}
else if(data > root->data)
{
root->right = recRemove(root->right, data);
}
else
{
if (root->right == NULL && root->left == NULL) //no children
{
delete root;
root = NULL;
return root;
}
else if(root->left == NULL) //only right child
{
temp = root;
root = root->right;
delete temp;
return root;
}
else if(root->right == NULL) //only left child
{
temp = root;
root = root->left;
delete temp;
return root;
}
else //2 children
{
temp->data = findMin(root->right);
root->data = temp->data;
root->right = recRemove(root->right, temp->data);
}
}

return root;
}
//find min node in BST
double findMin(node * p)
{
if(p == NULL)
{
return -1;
}
else
{
//in a balanced BST the minimum node is the leftmost node so,
//we traverse the left subtree until we get to the leftmost node and return and remove it.
temp = p;
while(temp->left != NULL)
{
temp = temp->left;
}
return temp->data;
}
}

[dhayden]

Every call to recRemove(someNode, value) must be of the form:
someNode = recRemove(someNode, value), including the non-recursive calls. Check you calls to make sure you're doing this.

If that seems like a bunch of work and easy to get wrong, you're correct. It would be better to make recRemove take a reference to the pointer and change the pointer itself:
void recRemove(node * &root, double data);

[keskiverto]

See http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/jEywvCM9/ about code tags for formatting posted code.