Recursive List Flattening

Question

I could probably write this myself, but the specific way I\'m trying to accomplish it is throwing me off. I\'m trying to write a generic extension method similar to the oth

Answer 1

Here's an extension that might help. It will traverse all nodes in your hierarchy of objects and pick out the ones that match a criteria. It assumes that each object in your hierarchy has a collection property that holds its child objects.

Here's the extension:

/// Traverses an object hierarchy and return a flattened list of elements
/// based on a predicate.
/// 
/// TSource: The type of object in your collection.</typeparam>
/// source: The collection of your topmost TSource objects.</param>
/// selectorFunction: A predicate for choosing the objects you want.
/// getChildrenFunction: A function that fetches the child collection from an object.
/// returns: A flattened list of objects which meet the criteria in selectorFunction.
public static IEnumerable<TSource> Map<TSource>(
  this IEnumerable<TSource> source,
  Func<TSource, bool> selectorFunction,
  Func<TSource, IEnumerable<TSource>> getChildrenFunction)
{
  // Add what we have to the stack
  var flattenedList = source.Where(selectorFunction);

  // Go through the input enumerable looking for children,
  // and add those if we have them
  foreach (TSource element in source)
  {
    flattenedList = flattenedList.Concat(
      getChildrenFunction(element).Map(selectorFunction,
                                       getChildrenFunction)
    );
  }
  return flattenedList;
}

Examples (Unit Tests):

First we need an object and a nested object hierarchy.

A simple node class

class Node
{
  public int NodeId { get; set; }
  public int LevelId { get; set; }
  public IEnumerable<Node> Children { get; set; }

  public override string ToString()
  {
    return String.Format("Node {0}, Level {1}", this.NodeId, this.LevelId);
  }
}

And a method to get a 3-level deep hierarchy of nodes

private IEnumerable<Node> GetNodes()
{
  // Create a 3-level deep hierarchy of nodes
  Node[] nodes = new Node[]
    {
      new Node 
      { 
        NodeId = 1, 
        LevelId = 1, 
        Children = new Node[]
        {
          new Node { NodeId = 2, LevelId = 2, Children = new Node[] {} },
          new Node
          {
            NodeId = 3,
            LevelId = 2,
            Children = new Node[]
            {
              new Node { NodeId = 4, LevelId = 3, Children = new Node[] {} },
              new Node { NodeId = 5, LevelId = 3, Children = new Node[] {} }
            }
          }
        }
      },
      new Node { NodeId = 6, LevelId = 1, Children = new Node[] {} }
    };
  return nodes;
}

First Test: flatten the hierarchy, no filtering

[Test]
public void Flatten_Nested_Heirachy()
{
  IEnumerable<Node> nodes = GetNodes();
  var flattenedNodes = nodes.Map(
    p => true, 
    (Node n) => { return n.Children; }
  );
  foreach (Node flatNode in flattenedNodes)
  {
    Console.WriteLine(flatNode.ToString());
  }

  // Make sure we only end up with 6 nodes
  Assert.AreEqual(6, flattenedNodes.Count());
}

This will show:

Node 1, Level 1
Node 6, Level 1
Node 2, Level 2
Node 3, Level 2
Node 4, Level 3
Node 5, Level 3

Second Test: Get a list of nodes that have an even-numbered NodeId

[Test]
public void Only_Return_Nodes_With_Even_Numbered_Node_IDs()
{
  IEnumerable<Node> nodes = GetNodes();
  var flattenedNodes = nodes.Map(
    p => (p.NodeId % 2) == 0, 
    (Node n) => { return n.Children; }
  );
  foreach (Node flatNode in flattenedNodes)
  {
    Console.WriteLine(flatNode.ToString());
  }
  // Make sure we only end up with 3 nodes
  Assert.AreEqual(3, flattenedNodes.Count());
}

This will show:

Node 6, Level 1
Node 2, Level 2
Node 4, Level 3

Answer 2

I thought I'd share a complete example with error handling and a single-logic apporoach.

Recursive flattening is as simple as:

LINQ version

public static class IEnumerableExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> SelectManyRecursive<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, IEnumerable<T>> selector)
    {
        if (source == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
        if (selector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("selector");

        return !source.Any() ? source :
            source.Concat(
                source
                .SelectMany(i => selector(i).EmptyIfNull())
                .SelectManyRecursive(selector)
            );
    }

    public static IEnumerable<T> EmptyIfNull<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
    {
        return source ?? Enumerable.Empty<T>();
    }
}

Non-LINQ version

public static class IEnumerableExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> SelectManyRecursive<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, IEnumerable<T>> selector)
    {
        if (source == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
        if (selector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("selector");

        foreach (T item in source)
        {
            yield return item;

            var children = selector(item);
            if (children == null)
                continue;

            foreach (T descendant in children.SelectManyRecursive(selector))
            {
                yield return descendant;
            }
        }
    }
}

Design decisions

I decided to:

• disallow flattening of a null IEnumerable, this can be changed by removing exception throwing and:
  • adding source = source.EmptyIfNull(); before return in the 1st version
  • adding if (source != null) before foreach in the 2nd version
• allow returning of a null collection by the selector - this way I'm removing responsibility from the caller to assure the children list isn't empty, this can be changed by:
  • removing .EmptyIfNull() in the first version - note that SelectMany will fail if null is returned by selector
  • removing if (children == null) continue; in the second version - note that foreach will fail on a null IEnumerable parameter
• allow filtering children with .Where clause on the caller side or within the children selector rather than passing a children filter selector parameter:
  • it won't impact the efficiency because in both versions it is a deferred call
  • it would be mixing another logic with the method and I prefer to keep the logic separated

Sample use

I'm using this extension method in LightSwitch to obtain all controls on the screen:

public static class ScreenObjectExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<IContentItemProxy> FindControls(this IScreenObject screen)
    {
        var model = screen.Details.GetModel();

        return model.GetChildItems()
            .SelectManyRecursive(c => c.GetChildItems())
            .OfType<IContentItemDefinition>()
            .Select(c => screen.FindControl(c.Name));
    }
}

Answer 3

Isn't that what [SelectMany][1] is for?

enum1.SelectMany(
    a => a.SelectMany(
        b => b.SelectMany(
            c => c.Select(
                d => d.Name
            )
        )
    )
);

Answer 4

The SelectMany extension method does this already.

Projects each element of a sequence to an IEnumerable<(Of <(T>)>) and flattens the resulting sequences into one sequence.

Answer 5

Function:

public static class MyExtentions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> RecursiveSelector<T>(this IEnumerable<T> nodes, Func<T, IEnumerable<T>> selector)
    {
        if(nodes.Any())
            return nodes.Concat(nodes.SelectMany(selector).RecursiveSelector(selector));

        return nodes;
    } 
}

Usage:

var ar = new[]
{
    new Node
    {
        Name = "1",
        Chilren = new[]
        {
            new Node
            {
                Name = "11",
                Children = new[]
                {
                    new Node
                    {
                        Name = "111",

                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
};

var flattened = ar.RecursiveSelector(x => x.Children).ToList();

Answer 6

Okay here's another version which is combined from about 3 answers above.

Recursive. Uses yield. Generic. Optional filter predicate. Optional selection function. About as concise as I could make it.

    public static IEnumerable<TNode> Flatten<TNode>(
        this IEnumerable<TNode> nodes, 
        Func<TNode, bool> filterBy = null,
        Func<TNode, IEnumerable<TNode>> selectChildren = null
        )
    {
        if (nodes == null) yield break;
        if (filterBy != null) nodes = nodes.Where(filterBy);

        foreach (var node in nodes)
        {
            yield return node;

            var children = (selectChildren == null)
                ? node as IEnumerable<TNode>
                : selectChildren(node);

            if (children == null) continue;

            foreach (var child in children.Flatten(filterBy, selectChildren))
            {
                yield return child;
            }
        }
    }

Usage:

// With filter predicate, with selection function
var flatList = nodes.Flatten(n => n.IsDeleted == false, n => n.Children);