How do I print out a tree structure?
With Recursion
You'll need to keep track of an indentation string that's modified as you go deeper into the tree. To avoid adding extra |
characters, you'll also need to know whether the Node is the last child in that set.
public static void PrintTree(Node tree, String indent, Bool last)
{
Console.Write(indent + "+- " + tree.Name);
indent += last ? " " : "| ";
for (int i = 0; i < tree.Children.Count; i++)
{
PrintTree(tree.Children[i], indent, i == tree.Children.Count - 1);
}
}
When called like this:
PrintTree(node, "", true)
It will output text like this:
+- root
+- branch-A
| +- sibling-X
| | +- grandchild-A
| | +- grandchild-B
| +- sibling-Y
| | +- grandchild-C
| | +- grandchild-D
| +- sibling-Z
| +- grandchild-E
| +- grandchild-F
+- branch-B
+- sibling-J
+- sibling-K
Without Recursion
If you happen to have a very deep tree and your call stack size is limited, you can instead do a static, non-recursive tree traversal to output the same result:
public static void PrintTree(Node tree)
{
List<Node> firstStack = new List<Node>();
firstStack.Add(tree);
List<List<Node>> childListStack = new List<List<Node>>();
childListStack.Add(firstStack);
while (childListStack.Count > 0)
{
List<Node> childStack = childListStack[childListStack.Count - 1];
if (childStack.Count == 0)
{
childListStack.RemoveAt(childListStack.Count - 1);
}
else
{
tree = childStack[0];
childStack.RemoveAt(0);
string indent = "";
for (int i = 0; i < childListStack.Count - 1; i++)
{
indent += (childListStack[i].Count > 0) ? "| " : " ";
}
Console.WriteLine(indent + "+- " + tree.Name);
if (tree.Children.Count > 0)
{
childListStack.Add(new List<Node>(tree.Children));
}
}
}
}
The trick is to pass a string as the indent and to treat the last child specially:
class Node
{
public void PrintPretty(string indent, bool last)
{
Console.Write(indent);
if (last)
{
Console.Write("\\-");
indent += " ";
}
else
{
Console.Write("|-");
indent += "| ";
}
Console.WriteLine(Name);
for (int i = 0; i < Children.Count; i++)
Children[i].PrintPretty(indent, i == Children.Count - 1);
}
}
If called like this:
root.PrintPretty("", true);
will output in this style:
\-root
\-child
|-child
\-child
|-child
|-child
\-child
|-child
|-child
| |-child
| \-child
| |-child
| |-child
| |-child
| \-child
| \-child
| \-child
\-child
|-child
|-child
|-child
| \-child
\-child
\-child
Create PrintNode method and use recursion:
class Node
{
public string Name;
public decimal Time;
public List<Node> Children = new List<Node>();
public void PrintNode(string prefix)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} + {1} : {2}", prefix, this.Name, this.Time);
foreach (Node n in Children)
if (Children.IndexOf(n) == Children.Count - 1)
n.PrintNode(prefix + " ");
else
n.PrintNode(prefix + " |");
}
}
ANd then to print the whole tree just execute:
topNode.PrintNode("");
In my example it would give us something like that:
+ top : 123
| + Node 1 : 29
| | + subnode 0 : 90
| | + sdhasj : 232
| | + subnode 1 : 38
| | + subnode 2 : 49
| | + subnode 8 : 39
| + subnode 9 : 47
+ Node 2 : 51
| + subnode 0 : 89
| + sdhasj : 232
| + subnode 1 : 33
+ subnode 3 : 57