Searching a tree using LINQ
I have a tree created from this class.
class Node
{
public string Key { get; }
public List<Node> Children { get; }
}
I want to search in all children and all their children to get the ones matching a condition:
node.Key == SomeSpecialKey
How can I implement it?
It's a misconception that this requires recursion. It will require a stack or a queue and the easiest way is to implement it using recursion. For sake of completeness I'll provide a non-recursive answer.
static IEnumerable<Node> Descendants(this Node root)
{
var nodes = new Stack<Node>(new[] {root});
while (nodes.Any())
{
Node node = nodes.Pop();
yield return node;
foreach (var n in node.Children) nodes.Push(n);
}
}
Use this expression for example to use it:
root.Descendants().Where(node => node.Key == SomeSpecialKey)
If you want to maintain Linq like syntax, you can use a method to obtain all the descendants (children + children's children etc.)
static class NodeExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<Node> Descendants(this Node node)
{
return node.Children.Concat(node.Children.SelectMany(n => n.Descendants()));
}
}
This enumerable can then be queried like any other using where or first or whatever.