Creating a tree with generics

[Polaris431]

I need to implement a tree structure that can accept various types of
classes or structs. When the tree is created, all of its nodes are
based on a single type and not a mixture of types.

Generics seem to be the solution. However when I look at the
System.Collections.Generic namespace, there isn't anything specific
for building generic trees. There are however classes in this
namespace that I can use to build a tree. My question is, is this the
way I should go about creating the tree? Or do any of the existing
classes in this namespace have built-in tree functionality?

My tree is not for GUI purposes, so I don't want to use the TreeView
class which appears to have limitations that are overcome by Generics.

Thanks

 

[Niels Ull]

The simplest way would be to use an open source implementation, e.g. http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/treecollection2.asp

By the way, there are several other open source C# collection framewroks,
e.g. C5 (http://www.itu.dk/research/c5/) and PowerCollections (http://www.wintellect.com/PowerCollections.aspx).

These don't have a tree, though

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Polaris431,

There isn't any data structure out of the box in the framework which
will help you. However, you can use generics yourself to create tree
structure which takes a parameterized type for the value of your nodes.

As Neils said as well, there are third party implementations which might
be suitable for you as well.