Insert into n-ary tree using Queue - c++

Question

I have a simple n-ary (3 child nodes maximum) whereby the first node inserted will be the root. Before, I add any other node, I have to search the tree and insert as a child node from a previously inserted node, if a condition is meet.
My insertion methods is overloaded for first insertion and subsequent insertions.
I was able to insert the first node using this method:
void Tree::AddSkill(char* name, char* desc, int level)
{
Skill s(name, desc, level);
Node * newNode = new Node(s);
//newNode->aSkill = Skill(name, desc, level);
newNode->parent = NULL;
for (int i = 0; i<CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
newNode->children[i] = NULL;
}
if (this->root == NULL)
{
this->root = newNode;
}
else
{
this->root->parent = newNode;
newNode->children[0] = this->root;
this->root = newNode;
}
}
I'm having a few issues with subsequent insertion into the tree,
Here is the code I have so far:
void Tree::AddSkill(char* name, char* desc, int level, char* parentName)
{
if (this->root == NULL)
{
cout << "Error: no nodes in tree.\n";
return;
}
Node* node = NULL;
Skill s(name, desc, level);
Node * child = new Node(s);
while (root != NULL)
{
if (strcmp(child->aSkill.GetName(), parentName) == 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
if (node->children[i] == NULL)
{
child->aSkill = s;
child->parent = node;
node->children[i] = child;
return;
}
}
}
}
}
When I run the code through VS Debugger, the while loop in the second AddSkill method repeats endlessly.
I'm not so sure what I'm doing wrong or what concept I need to implement, any help will be appreciated.
P.S. This is an Homework (Not sure what the appropriate tag is).
Update:
I have tried to implement the overloaded AddSkill() using Queue.
This is what I've tried with it.
void SkillTree::AddSkill(char* name, char* desc, int level, char* parentName)
{
if (this->root == NULL)
{
cout << "Error: no nodes in tree.\n";
return;
}
queue<Node*> q;
q.push(this->root);
while (!q.empty())
{
Node * n = q.front();
q.pop();
if (strcmp(n->aSkill.GetName(), parentName) == 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i<CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
if (n->children[i] == NULL)
{
Skill s(name, desc, level);
Node * child = new Node(s);
//When I comment out the next 3 lines, program does not crash. Not sure what the problem is here.
child->aSkill = s;
child->parent = n;
n->children[i] = child;
return;
}
}
return;
}
for (int i = 0; i<CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
if (n->children[i] != NULL)
{
q.push(n->children[i]);
}
}
}
}
Skill Class
#include <iostream>
#include "Skill.h"
Skill::Skill()
{
name = NULL;
desc = NULL;
level = 0;
}
Skill::Skill(char* name, char* desc, int level) : level(level), name(new char[strlen(name) + 1]), desc(new char[strlen(desc) + 1])
{
strcpy_s(this->name, (strlen(name) + 1), name);
strcpy_s(this->desc, (strlen(desc) + 1), desc);
}
Skill::Skill(const Skill& aSkill)
{
this->name = new char[strlen(aSkill.name) + 1];
strcpy_s(this->name, (strlen(aSkill.name) + 1), aSkill.name);
this->level = aSkill.level;
this->desc = new char[strlen(aSkill.desc) + 1];
strcpy_s(this->desc, (strlen(aSkill.desc) + 1), aSkill.desc);
}
Skill& Skill::operator=(const Skill& aSkill)
{
if (this == &aSkill)
return *this;
else
{
delete[] name;
delete[] desc;
name = new char[strlen(aSkill.name) + 1];
strcpy_s(name, (strlen(aSkill.name) + 1), aSkill.name);
desc = new char[strlen(aSkill.desc) + 1];
strcpy_s(name, (strlen(aSkill.desc) + 1), aSkill.desc);
level = aSkill.level;
return *this;
}
}
Skill::~Skill()
{
delete[] name;
delete[] desc;
}
char* Skill::GetName() const
{
return name;
}
char* Skill::GetDesc() const
{
return desc;
}
int Skill::GetLevel() const
{
return level;
}
void Skill::Display(ostream& out)
{
out << "- " << GetName() << " -- " << GetDesc() << " [Lvl: " << GetLevel() << "]\n";
}
Node:
Skill aSkill;
Node* parent;
Node* children[CHILD_MAX];
Node() : parent(NULL)
{
for (int i = 0; i < CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
children[i] = NULL;
}
};
Node(const Skill& n) : aSkill(n), parent(NULL)
{
for (int i = 0; i < CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
children[i] = NULL;
}
};
Here is an extract from main()
SkillTree student("Student");
student.Display(cout);
student.AddSkill("Alphabet","Mastery of letters and sounds",0);
student.Display(cout);
student.AddSkill("Reading","The ability to read all manner of written material",1,"Alphabet");
student.AddSkill("Writing","The ability to put your thoughts on paper",1,"Alphabet");
student.Display(cout);
student.AddSkill("Speed Reading Level 1","Read any text twice as fast as normal",5,"Reading");
student.AddSkill("Speed Reading Level 2","Read any text four times as fast as normal",10,"Speed Reading Level 1");
student.AddSkill("Memorization","Memorize average sized texts",10,"Reading");
student.AddSkill("Massive Memorization","Memorize large sized texts",20,"Memorization");
student.AddSkill("Spell Writing","The ability to write spells",5,"Writing");
student.AddSkill("History","The ability to write (and rewrite) history",10,"Writing");
student.AddSkill("Written Creation","The ability to write things into reality",20,"History");
student.Display(cout);
The two functions that student.Display(cout); calls are as follow
void Tree::Display(ostream& out)
{
out << "Skill Tree: " << title << "\n";
if (this->root == NULL)
{
cout << "Empty\n";
return;
}
else
Display_r(out, this->root, 1);
}
void Tree::Display_r(ostream& out, Node* n, int depth)
{
for (int i = 0; i<depth; i++)
{
out << " ";
}
n->aSkill.Display(out);
for (int i = 0; i<CHILD_MAX; i++)
{
if (n->children[i] != NULL)
{
Display_r(out, n->children[i], depth + 1);
}
}
}
If I comment out a section of code in the Queue implementation of AddSkill(), I get no error.

Answer 1

In the first AddSkill() you insert the new node on the top of the tree, making it the new root.
In the second AddSkill() you intend to insert the new node as child of a parent skill. The approach seems to be:
check that there is at least one node in the tree (initial if)
traverse the tree to find the parrent node ( while loop )
if the parent is found, find the first empty child to insert the new skill (inner for loop)
What are the problems ?
THere are several flaws in your algorithm:
you loop on root not null. As the tree is not empty here, and as you don't delete any node, this condition will remain true, allowing for an endless loop.
then you check if the new child's name corresponds to the parentname. I assume that this will be false most of the case (otherwhise you'd need one parameter less). So this will ensure that the loop is endless.
later you assume that node is the current node, and you insert the new child into node's children. This code is not exectuted. Fortunately: it would be undefined behaviour, because you've set node to NULL and never changed this value.
How to solve it ?
To do this right, you'd have to start with node at root, then check if the node's name matches parentname, and if yes, insert the child as you did.
There's a last problem however. A rather important one. The structure of your algorithm works for a linked list traversal, but not a tree traversal. The tree traversal algorithm requires either a stack/list to keep track of all the branches to explore, or a recursive approach.
Here some code (sorry, I've replaced char* with string and used vector<Node*> instead of Node*[]), using an auxiliary overload of AddSkill(), to perform the recursive search:
// replaces the former one that you had
void Tree::AddSkill(string name, string desc, int level, string parentName)
{
if (root == NULL)
{
cout << "Error: no nodes in tree.\n";
return;
}
Skill s(name, desc, level);
AddSkill(root, s, parentName);
}
// auxiliary helper
void Tree::AddSkill(Node*node, Skill& s, string& parentName)
{
if (node->sk.name == parentName) { // if found, add the new node as childen
Node * child = new Node(s);
child->parent = node;
node->children.push_back(child);
}
else {
for (auto &x : node->children) // for all the children
AddSkill(x, s, parentName); // search recursively
}
}
And here an online demo using shared pointers instead of raw pointers.