Trees with arbitrary node pointers

[Rocky Summers]

Hello guys..
how do i make a node class of a tree that has arbitrary pointers (unbounded).
unlike the binary tree, where it only has two pointers (left and right)..
cuz i'm making a spanning tree and it's driving me nuts on how to make the arbitrary pointers.
thanks.

[Jaap van Hengstum]

You mean something like this?

public class Node
{
private String name;
private List nodeList = new ArrayList();

public Node(String name) {
this.name = name;
}

public void addNode(Node node) {
nodeList.add(node);
}

public Node getNode(int index) {
return (Node) nodeList.get(index);
}

public void printNodes() {
System.out.println(name);
for (int i=0; i<nodeList.size(); i++)
getNode(i).printNodes();
}

// -------------------------------------------------------------------------

public static void main(String args[]) {
Node root = new Node("Rootnode");
root.addNode(new Node("Subnode 1"));
root.addNode(new Node("Subnode 2"));
root.addNode(new Node("Subnode 3"));
root.addNode(new Node("Subnode 4"));
root.printNodes();
}
}

[Rocky Summers]

thank you!
i'll try that out!

[Rocky Summers]

hello (again)
i was just wondering what this meant:

private List nodeList = new ArrayList();

i just want to understand..

[Rocky Summers]

hi, i tried compiling the code you gave me at home and it worked. but when i tried to compile with the computers here in school, it didnt work.. here's the error:
Node.java:5: incompatible types
found : java.util.ArrayList
required: List
private List nodeList = new ArrayList();

[Jim Yingst]

"Web": please take a moment to review our display name policy and then edit your display name to something less fictitious-sounding than "Web". Thanks.
As for your question: it looks like there's another class somewhere called List, which is confusing the compiler. You want java.util.List, not a "List" in the default package (which is what your error message indicates). You can either (a) rename the other List class, (b) delete it entirely, or (c) refer to java.util.List by its fully qualified name when that's the one you mean.
[ November 08, 2003: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]

[Rocky Summers]

oh shoot that's right!!! i have a List.java in my directory! ha... ha.... i feel so stupid. thanks!
ok ill change my name.

[Rocky Summers]

how would i go about adding more nodes to the tree?
this is my code for the insert:

 
    public void insert(MSNode root, int node_num, int from, int weight) {
if (root == null) {
    root = new MSNode(node_num, from, weight);
}
else if(root.getNodeNum(from) == from) {
    root.addNode(new MSNode(node_num, from, weight));
}
else {
    // what should i put to traverse the tree here and look for that certain node_num...
}

    }

and this is what i have in my node class:

 
    private int node_num, from, weight;
    private ArrayList nodeList = new ArrayList();
    
    public MSNode(int nn, int f, int w) {
this.node_num = nn;
this.from = f;
this.weight = w;
    }
    
    public void addNode(MSNode node) {
nodeList.add(node);
    }