c# - How to best traverse Children of Children's Children to an unknown depth? -

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• how search hierarchical data linq 8 answers

imagine object properties:

        class testobject         {             public string name { get; set; }             public collection<testobject> children { get; set; }         } 

now initialize in jagged fashion:

var person1 = new testobject(){                            name = "joe",                            children = new collection<testobject>(){ childcollection1 };                                };  var person2 = new testobject(){                            name = "mary",                            children = new collection<testobject>(){ childcollection2 };                                }; 

where joe's childcollection 1 level deep, mary's children have children, have children.

i have attempted use selectmany no luck.

// works var joe = person1.children.selectmany(c => c.children).concat(person1.children);  // not work - returns 1 level deep var mary = person2.children.selectmany(c => c.children).concat(person2.children); 

what best way retrieve result containing every child, unknown depth?

you can write generic traverse method this:

public static ienumerable<t> traverse<t>(t root,      func<t, ienumerable<t>> childselector) {     var stack = new stack<t>();     stack.push(root);      while (stack.any())     {         var next = stack.pop();         yield return next;         foreach (var child in childselector(next))             stack.push(child);     } } 

this general model that's useful traversing trees in general. note depth first search. if want breath first search use queue<t> instead of stack<t>.