Question

I’d like to make a method to generate a hierarchy ID like the following

1.0
 1.1
   1.1.1
   1.1.2
   1.1.3

 1.2
 1.3
2.0
 2.1

is there and way to accomplish this ?
any help will be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

Here is my quick attempt.

I am assuming that instead of 1.0 and 2.0 you meant just 1 and 2, respectively, as otherwise it would be inconsistent.

public class HierarchyGenerator
{
    private List<int> levels = new List<int> { 1 };

    public void DownOneLevel()
    {
        levels.Add(1);
    }

    public void UpLevels(int numLevels)
    {
        if (levels.Count < numLevels + 1)
            throw new InvalidOperationException(
                "Attempt to ascend beyond the top level.");

        for (int i = 0; i < numLevels; i++)
            levels.RemoveAt(levels.Count - 1);
        MoveNext();
    }

    public void MoveNext()
    {
        levels[levels.Count - 1]++;
    }

    public string Current
    {
        get
        {
            return new string(' ', (levels.Count - 1) * 2)
                 + string.Join(".", levels.Select(l => l.ToString()));
        }
    }
}

static partial class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var hg = new HierarchyGenerator();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1
        hg.DownOneLevel();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1.1
        hg.DownOneLevel();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1.1.1
        hg.MoveNext();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1.1.2
        hg.MoveNext();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1.1.3
        hg.UpLevels(1);
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1.2
        hg.MoveNext();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 1.3
        hg.UpLevels(1);
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 2
        hg.DownOneLevel();
        Console.WriteLine(hg.Current);  // 2.1
    }
}