Python Forum

I was able to write a function to recursively add the values within a nested list below:

def add_tree(tree):
    """
    Recursively computes the addition of all tree leaves.
    Returns an integer representing the addition.

    Inputs
       tree: A list (potentially containing sublists) that
       represents a tree structure.
    Outputs
       total: An int equal to the addition of all leaves of the tree.

    """

    if not isinstance(tree,list): 
        return tree
    else: 
        sumtree=0 
        for i in tree: 
            sumtree+=add_tree(i)
    return sumtree

This makes sense to me, especially after using Python Tutor.

The next part of my homework question asks us to define a new function that can carry out basic arithmetic operations on the leaves of a tree, i.e., the nested list. Operations are defined for us. I'll use the given addition operation as an example:

def summation(a,b):
    """
    Example operator function.
    Takes in two integers, returns their sum.
    """
    return a + b

In the new function we are asked to define op_tree, which takes three arguments:
op_tree(tree, op, base_call) where tree is the nested list, op is the operation function thus summation in my example, and base_call is the value the function returns when the tree is empty (0 for summation).

op_tree has to be recursive. I'm having trouble starting. It's unclear to me what I'm putting in as the arguments for the op, which requires two: a and b.

In your function, you have:

sumtree+=add_tree(i)

That is equivalent to:

sumtree = sumtree + add_tree(i)

Given that you want to replace a and b in a + b, what matches from your earlier code?

(Oct-04-2019, 05:23 PM)ichabod801 Wrote: [ -> ]In your function, you have:

 sumtree+=add_tree(i) 

That is equivalent to:

 sumtree = sumtree + add_tree(i) 

Given that you want to replace a and b in a + b, what matches from your earlier code?

Thank you for the push. I ended up writing this

def op_tree(tree, op, base_case):
    """
    Recursively runs a given operation on tree leaves.
    Return type depends on the specific operation.

    Inputs
       tree: A list (potentially containing sublists) that
       represents a tree structure.
       op: A function that takes in two inputs and returns the
       result of a specific operation on them.
       base_case: What the operation should return as a result
       in the base case (i.e. when the tree is empty).
    """  
  
    if isinstance(tree,int):
        return op(base_case,tree)
        
    else:
        value=op(base_case,base_case)
        for i in tree:
            value+=op_tree2(i,op,base_case)
        return value

Which worked for the summation operation, but does not work for a product operation and I knew it was because I was using +=, which doesn't work for multiplication. However, going back to your comment after I tried this clarified things. I changed the code above incorporating your hint and I got it to work!