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Building a tree recursively

I am doing a method to build a tree recursively. But i doubt it would work. Can someone help? I would like to supply this method with the root node, which contains a player's current coordinate in a game board. And then from there to continuously add children to the root node. Children are adjacent coordinates of the root node. I need to recursively build this tree until the depth is = 2. I am not sure if the int depth = 0 thing will overwrite itself in each recursive call or not. can someone check?

public GameTreeNode buildGameTree(GameTreeNode aNode)
       {
             int i=0;
             int depth = 0;

             if (depth != 2)
              {

                   int pCopy1[] = new int[aNode.player.length]; // cloning 4 copies of the root's coordinate
                   int pCopy2[] = new int[aNode.player.length];
                   int pCopy3[] = new int[aNode.player.length];
                   int pCopy4[] = new int[aNode.player.length];

                  System.arraycopy(aNode.player, 0, pCopy1, 0, aNode.player.length);
                  System.arraycopy(aNode.player, 0, pCopy2, 0, aNode.player.length);
                  System.arraycopy(aNode.player, 0, pCopy3, 0, aNode.player.length);
                  System.arraycopy(aNode.player, 0, pCopy4, 0, aNode.player.length);

                  pCopy1[0]++;      // right hand path coordinate
                  pCopy2[0]--;      // left hand path coordinate
                  pCopy3[1]++;      // upper path coordinate
                  pCopy4[1]--;      // down path coordinate

                  GameTreeNode child1 = new GameTreeNode(pCopy1); // building 4 nodes a time
                  GameTreeNode child2 = new GameTreeNode(pCopy2);
                  GameTreeNode child3 = new GameTreeNode(pCopy3);
                  GameTreeNode child4 = new GameTreeNode(pCopy4);

                  aNode.addChild(child1); // adding 4 nodes a time...
                  aNode.addChild(child2);
                  aNode.addChild(child3);
                  aNode.addChild(child4);

                  System.out.println("ADDING 4 childs");

                  depth++;

                   buildGameTree(aNode.getChildAt(i));
             }

       }

CEHJ

>>I am not sure if the int depth = 0 thing will overwrite itself in each recursive call or not

Yes it will. You should make it an instance variable

SOLUTION

zzynx

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jtcy

ASKER

is this the good way of building a tree? I am not sure actually. I mean, considering its performance. Is it fast or slow?

zzynx

>> You should make it an instance variable
CEHJ means,

make
int depth

a member of the buildGameTree()'s class.

e.g.

class YourClass {
private int depth=0;

public GameTreeNode buildGameTree(GameTreeNode aNode) {
// int depth = 0; // <<<< remove this line
}
}

>> is this the good way of building a tree?
cf. my previous comment (considering the OO design & maintainability)

>> considering its performance
I don't see a problem
Anyway, once you have to create the children.

Mike Tomlinson

An alternative approach would be to pass the depth in to your buildGameTree() function as one of the parameters. When you pass in the root node, pass in the depth as zero. Then increment your depth as you are in code and continue to make your recursive calls.

Idle_Mind

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

wll9111

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wll9111

public static void main(String[] args) throws java.io.IOException
{
      FileReader inFile = new FileReader(args[0]);                        // creating two copies of the input file...
      FileReader inFile2 = new FileReader(args[0]);

      Yylex lexer = new Yylex(inFile);                                          // creating a lexer...
      Parser parser = new Parser(lexer);                                          // creating a parser...

      parser.debugParser = true;                                                // debugging tools set off by default...
      parser.printAST = true;

      // get the start symbol...
      parser.next_symbol();
              parser.nProgram();

              // here we create a listing file...
      parser.writeFile(inFile2);


}

zzynx

Hi, wll9111, sure you put your comments in the right Q?

zzynx

Strange things are happening here.
16 days wihtout further comments.
And now a comment that at first sight (I'll stay moderate) doesn't have any link to the Q is accepted within minutes.
???

jtcy, could you please comment on this?

jtcy

ASKER

sorry, that;s my course mate. I told him to join here post the solution for me.

zzynx

>> I told him to join here post the solution for me
Is that really the solution to your Q "how to build a tree recursively"?
???? 8-O

If you can explain that you certainly deserve a ton of points.

jtcy

ASKER

um...sort of, actually he posted the wrong topic but anyway I asked the question intentioned to how to implement the minimax tree recursively, so yeah.

zzynx

>> actually he posted the wrong topic
There's nothing against posting the right answer (or let it post by someone you know and even accept)
But accepting the wrong answer is not so nice for all the people who'll read this Q in the future...