Question

I came across the following code and despite some help from others, I am still having trouble understanding it.
This code is supposed to implement a General Tree. Single_List and Single_Node classes are also available for use in implementation.

        template <class Object>
        class General_tree {
            private:
                Object element;  // the stored in the node
                Single_list< General_tree<Object> * > children;
                    // a linked list of pointers to general trees
            public:
                Object retrieve() {
                    return element;
                }
                // ...
        };

Can someone tell me what one instance of this class will consist of?

I think it will consist of

                           [element value in node made by Single_Node] -----> 
                             /                           next pointer (part of Single_list class)
                            / 
                           / children pointer to another such instance of General_Tree
                          V

Then these instances can be combined to form a tree… I am still getting used to Object Oriented Design I guess so please let me know if this reasoning and interpretation is correct?

thanks!

Answer 1

The tree object is really a node in the tree, where children points to the nodes at the next level, which will have pointers to their children, etc.

Together they form a subtree (or the whole tree, if it is the root node).