Non-recursive depth first search algorithm
You would use a stack that holds the nodes that were not visited yet:
stack.push(root)
while !stack.isEmpty() do
node = stack.pop()
for each node.childNodes do
stack.push(stack)
endfor
// …
endwhile
If you have pointers to parent nodes, you can do it without additional memory.
def dfs(root):
node = root
while True:
visit(node)
if node.first_child:
node = node.first_child # walk down
else:
while not node.next_sibling:
if node is root:
return
node = node.parent # walk up ...
node = node.next_sibling # ... and right
Note that if the child nodes are stored as an array rather than through sibling pointers, the next sibling can be found as:
def next_sibling(node):
try:
i = node.parent.child_nodes.index(node)
return node.parent.child_nodes[i+1]
except (IndexError, AttributeError):
return None
DFS:
list nodes_to_visit = {root};
while( nodes_to_visit isn't empty ) {
currentnode = nodes_to_visit.take_first();
nodes_to_visit.prepend( currentnode.children );
//do something
}
BFS:
list nodes_to_visit = {root};
while( nodes_to_visit isn't empty ) {
currentnode = nodes_to_visit.take_first();
nodes_to_visit.append( currentnode.children );
//do something
}
The symmetry of the two is quite cool.
Update: As pointed out, take_first()
removes and returns the first element in the list.