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Open.Hierarchy 2.0.0

Open.Hierarchy

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Introduction

Open.Hierarchy is a versatile library designed for creating and manipulating tree structures with a focus on efficiency and ease of use. With the Node<T> class and its supporting components, this library enables users to create tree structures that have a unidirectional parent-to-child relationship, enabling more efficient use of memory and simplified garbage collection.

Node<T>

Node<T> is a versatile class that represents a node in a bidirectional tree. It can be used as-is or to act as a bidirectional map of a unidirectional tree. In a bidirectional tree, it is crucial to ensure that a node cannot occur multiple times, although its value can occur any number of times. This approach enables the creation of 'value sub-trees' with duplicate references but not duplicate instances. By using Node<T> as a container, a single instance can exist multiple times in a tree but still be uniquely identifiable by its position.

Node<T>.Factory

The Node<T>.Factory class provides useful methods for creating, mapping, cloning, and recycling Node<T> instances:

Blank Instance

• .GetBlankNode(): Retrieves a blank node from the underlying object pool or creates a new one.

Mapping

• .Map(root): Generates a node hierarchy map based on whether the root or any of its children implement the IParent interface.

Cloning

• .Clone(node): Creates a copy of the node map.

Recycling

• Factory.Recycle(node): Recycles a Node<T> instance by tearing down the node itself and its children, returning them to an object pool.

WARNING: The Factory.Recycle(node) method is a potential source of issues if multiple references are retained. It must be used with care to avoid unexpected behavior.