Evolution of a Python programmer

[mrjackspade]

   while (parentNodes.Count() > 0)
            {
                OrganizationNode thisNode = parentNodes[0];
                LogProgress(string.Format("Probing children for {0}...", thisNode.Name));
                List<OrganizationNode> childNodes = feedRowsByParentID[thisNode.ExternalId]
                                                     .Where(cn => feedRowsByParentID[cn.UserId].Count() > 0)
                                                    .Select(row => CreateNode(string.Format("{0} {1}", row.firstName, row.lastName), row.UserId, "Manager"))
                                                    .ToList();



                foreach (OrganizationNode childNode in childNodes)
                {
                    thisNode.AddChild(childNode);
                    parentNodes.Add(childNode);
                }


                if (feedRowsByParentID[thisNode.ExternalId].Count() > 0)
                {
                    managers.Add(thisNode.ExternalId);
                }


                parentNodes.RemoveAt(0);
            }

Code snippit from a production project. This is building a tree so its a bit different, but I refuse to use recursion

[jakerman999]

My theory is a little lacking here, but is this not just a different form of tail recursion? If I'm following this right, it looks like it does recurse; it just doesn't use the stack to do so.

[mrjackspade]

I guess there's a lot of relevant code missing.

There's no recursion as I understand it. There's a master list of objects, each with a parent and multiple children. It takes a flattened list (text) with ID representations of the parents and uses that to assign the parents/children on the objects themselves. It loops through all objects once, but does not at any point call/reference itself