parse a tree

[Haris Bogdanoviæ]

Hi.

How can I parse a tree (arrays within arrays), for example a tree of
strings, to print all strings ?

Thanks.

 

[Michael Malone]

Hi.

How can I parse a tree (arrays within arrays), for example a tree of
strings, to print all strings ?

Thanks.

tree walking hints at a recursive routine...

def tree_walk(array)
array.each do |item|
if item.class == Array
tree_walk(item)
else
puts item
end
end
end

or for the one-liners among us
def tree_walk(array)
array.each { |item| (item.class == Array)? tree_walk(item) : puts item }
end

However, I don't reccomend testing on the item.class. I can't explain
why very well, but it seems wrong to me. Maybe someone else can...?

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[Peña, Botp]

From: Michael Malone [mailto:[email protected]]=20
#..
# def tree_walk(array)
# array.each { |item| (item.class =3D=3D Array)?=20
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ =20
item.is_a? Array

# tree_walk(item) : puts item }
# end


note that the above tree_walk is equivalent to,=20

puts array

 

[Brian Candler]

However, I don't reccomend testing on the item.class. I can't explain
why very well, but it seems wrong to me. Maybe someone else can...?

I think it's fine. You need some way to distinguish between a leaf node
and an inner node, and how you do that depends on how your data
structure is built.

Here, the assumption is that inner nodes are Arrays and leaf nodes are
anything else.

 

[Robert Klemme]

How can I parse a tree (arrays within arrays), for example a tree of
strings, to print all strings ?

Do you want to _parse_ or _print_? This is totally unclear to me. For
displaying nested structures for debugging purposes, pp will do

require 'pp'

a = [...] # nested
pp a

If you want to parse: you did not provide how the input looks like so
nobody could help you with that.

Kind regards

robert