Non-recursive depth first search algorithm [closed]

Question

DFS:

list nodes_to_visit = {root};
while( nodes_to_visit isn't empty ) {
  currentnode = nodes_to_visit.take_first();
  nodes_to_visit.prepend( currentnode.children );
  //do something
}

BFS:

list nodes_to_visit = {root};
while( nodes_to_visit isn't empty ) {
  currentnode = nodes_to_visit.take_first();
  nodes_to_visit.append( currentnode.children );
  //do something
}

The symmetry of the two is quite cool.

Update: As pointed out, take_first() removes and returns the first element in the list.

You would use a stack that holds the nodes that were not visited yet:

stack.push(root)
while !stack.isEmpty() do
    node = stack.pop()
    for each node.childNodes do
        stack.push(stack)
    endfor
    // …
endwhile

If you have pointers to parent nodes, you can do it without additional memory.

def dfs(root):
    node = root
    while True:
        visit(node)
        if node.first_child:
            node = node.first_child      # walk down
        else:
            while not node.next_sibling:
                if node is root:
                    return
                node = node.parent       # walk up ...
            node = node.next_sibling     # ... and right

Note that if the child nodes are stored as an array rather than through sibling pointers, the next sibling can be found as:

def next_sibling(node):
    try:
        i =    node.parent.child_nodes.index(node)
        return node.parent.child_nodes[i+1]
    except (IndexError, AttributeError):
        return None

Use a stack to track your nodes

Stack<Node> s;

s.prepend(tree.head);

while(!s.empty) {
    Node n = s.poll_front // gets first node

    // do something with q?

    for each child of n: s.prepend(child)

}

An ES6 implementation based on biziclops great answer:

root = {
  text: "root",
  children: [{
    text: "c1",
    children: [{
      text: "c11"
    }, {
      text: "c12"
    }]
  }, {
    text: "c2",
    children: [{
      text: "c21"
    }, {
      text: "c22"
    }]
  }, ]
}

console.log("DFS:")
DFS(root, node => node.children, node => console.log(node.text));

console.log("BFS:")
BFS(root, node => node.children, node => console.log(node.text));

function BFS(root, getChildren, visit) {
  let nodesToVisit = [root];
  while (nodesToVisit.length > 0) {
    const currentNode = nodesToVisit.shift();
    nodesToVisit = [
      ...nodesToVisit,
      ...(getChildren(currentNode) || []),
    ];
    visit(currentNode);
  }
}

function DFS(root, getChildren, visit) {
  let nodesToVisit = [root];
  while (nodesToVisit.length > 0) {
    const currentNode = nodesToVisit.shift();
    nodesToVisit = [
      ...(getChildren(currentNode) || []),
      ...nodesToVisit,
    ];
    visit(currentNode);
  }
}