How can you efficiently transform a list of path strings into a hierarchical tree structure without relying heavily on pointer manipulation and recursion?

Transforming Path Strings into Hierarchical Tree Structures

When presented with an array of path-like structures, constructing a corresponding hierarchical tree structure can be a challenging task, especially with limitations in pointer manipulation and recursion. To address this, an efficient solution is to utilize a method that iteratively adds nodes to the tree while searching for existing ones.

SOLUTION

The proposed solution employs a recursive function named AddToTree that takes a list of nodes (root) and a list of path components to be added (names). It iterates through the root nodes, checking if the first component of names (names[0]) already exists as a child. If it does not, a new node with names[0] as the name is appended to the root.

Next, the function recursively calls AddToTree on the children of the node that matches names[0]. This process continues until all components of names have been processed, resulting in a fully constructed tree structure.

CODE EXAMPLE

Below is the Go implementation of the AddToTree function:

<code class="go">func AddToTree(root []Node, names []string) []Node {
    if len(names) > 0 {
        var i int
        for i = 0; i < len(root); i++ {
            if root[i].Name == names[0] { //already in tree
                break
            }
        }
        if i == len(root) {
            root = append(root, Node{Name: names[0]})
        }
        root[i].Children = AddToTree(root[i].Children, names[1:])
    }
    return root
}</code>

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

Using this solution, the input data provided can be transformed into the desired tree structure:

[{
    "name": "a",
    "children": [{
        "name": "b",
        "children": [{
            "name": "c"
        }, {
            "name": "g"
        }]
    }, {
        "name": "d"
    }]
}]

KEY DIFFERENCES

Compared to the provided code, the proposed solution offers several key advantages:

• It operates on a list of nodes, allowing for multiple root nodes.
• It creates new nodes instead of modifying the input node, avoiding data duplication.
• It actively searches the tree to prevent duplicate nodes.

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