Recursion troubles with "return undefined" (JavaScript)
I'm stuck with recursion. I've read a few similar questions, but it brought me no relief. My function works well inside, but it returns "undefined" at the end.
I have a binary tree. Now I'm trying to make a function, which can get me an answer: if any nodes on this level have children.
class tree_node {
constructor(n_array, parent) {
this.n_array = n_array;
this.has_children = false;
this.children = [];
if (parent != null) {
this.parent = parent;
this.level = this.parent.level + 1;
}
else {
this.level = 0;
}
// run the tree
this.child();
}
child() {
if (this.n_array.length != 1) {
this.has_children = true;
let m = Math.floor(this.n_array.length / 2);
let l = this.n_array.slice(0, m);
let r = this.n_array.slice(m);
const left = new tree_node(l, this);
const right = new tree_node(r, this);
this.children.push(left, right);
}
else return 0
}
get_if_node_has_children(node, level) {
console.log(node.level, node.has_children)
if (node.has_children && node.level < level) {
console.log("in loop")
node.children.forEach(element => {
return element.get_if_node_has_children(element, level);
});
}
else {
console.log("first else")
if (node.level == level && node.has_children) {
console.log("node.level == level && node.has_children " + node.n_array)
return true;
}
else {
console.log("return false")
return false;
}
}
}
show() {
console.log(this.n_array + " | Level: " + this.level + ". " + this.branch + " Has children = " + this.has_children);
if (this.has_children) {
this.children.forEach(element => {
return element.show();
});
}
else {
return 0;
}
}
}
get_if_node_has_children(node, level)
work inside, so to speak. I've expected the exact behaviour and log. Except on thing: function returns "undefined". But I have no idea where I missed the point.
let root = [];
class tree_node {
constructor(n_array, parent) {
this.n_array = n_array;
this.has_children = false;
this.children = [];
// при создании экземпляра класса то parent == null
if (parent != null) {
this.parent = parent;
this.level = this.parent.level + 1;
} else {
this.level = 0;
}
// run the tree
this.child();
}
child() {
if (this.n_array.length != 1) {
this.has_children = true;
let m = Math.floor(this.n_array.length / 2);
let l = this.n_array.slice(0, m);
let r = this.n_array.slice(m);
const left = new tree_node(l, this);
const right = new tree_node(r, this);
this.children.push(left, right);
} else return 0
}
get_if_node_has_children(node, level) {
console.log(node.level, node.has_children)
if (node.has_children && node.level < level) {
console.log("in loop")
node.children.forEach(element => {
return element.get_if_node_has_children(element, level);
});
} else {
console.log("first else")
if (node.level == level && node.has_children) {
console.log("node.level == level && node.has_children " + node.n_array)
return true;
} else {
console.log("return false")
return false;
}
}
}
show() {
console.log(this.n_array + " | Level: " + this.level + ". " + "Has children = " + this.has_children);
if (this.has_children) {
this.children.forEach(element => {
return element.show();
});
} else {
return 0;
}
}
// CLASS END ===========================
}
root = new tree_node([1, 3, 5, 7, 9, ])
console.log("=== root.show() ===")
root.show();
console.log("=== let a = root.get_if_node_has_children(root, 2) ===")
let a = root.get_if_node_has_children(root, 2)
console.log(" a is " + a)
There are two problems:
-
return
inside a callback (for instance, yourforEach
callback) just returns from the callback, not the function that calledforEach
. In general, in modern code, usefor-of
unless you need the index of the element. -
You're not checking the result of the recursive call before returning it. But if the first child node you call it on returns
false
, you want to keep looking, rather than immediately returningfalse
.
Fixing both:
get_if_node_has_children(node, level) {
console.log(node.level, node.has_children)
if (node.has_children && node.level < level) {
console.log("in loop")
for (const element of node.children) { // *** #1, using `for-of` instead of `forEach` so we can return below
const hasChild = element.get_if_node_has_children(element, level);
if (hasChild) { // *** #2, only return here if you got `true`
return true; // ***
} // ***
}
return false; // *** #2 part 2 -- didn't find it anywhere, return `false`
} else {
console.log("first else")
if (node.level == level && node.has_children) {
console.log("node.level == level && node.has_children " + node.n_array)
return true;
} else {
console.log("return false")
return false;
}
}
}
I'd reorganize that slightly though, which is easier if I remove some no-longer-needed logging:
get_if_node_has_children(node, level) {
console.log(node.level, node.has_children)
if (node.has_children) {
if (node.level === level) {
return true;
}
if (node.level < level) {
for (const element of node.children) {
if (element.get_if_node_has_children(element, level)) {
return true;
}
}
}
}
return false;
}