On Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:49:41 -0500, Andrej Mitrovic
<[email protected]> wrote:
On 2/11/11, Steven Schveighoffer <[email protected]> wrote:
struct Node
{
int id;
string myName;
Node *parent; // only needed if you want to go up the tree.
Node *[] children;
}
-Steve
What are the benefits of using struct pointers instead of classes in
this case?
Classes are more heavyweight (hidden vtable ptr, monitor) and have less
control over their allocation. For example, I used to use classes to
represent tree nodes in dcollections' RBTree (which later became
std.container.RedBlackTree), but I found structs use up less space and I
can create custom allocators for them which significantly increase
performance.
The only real downside is you occasionally have to deal with the pointer
aspect (but most of the time not, since the dot operator
auto-dereferences).
Plus, classes are good if you need polymorphism, or want to restrict
allocation of nodes to the heap. You don't need polymorphism for tree
node, and the restriction isn't necessary in all cases. It might be a
good idea to make the "tree root" a class, but the nodes work better as
structs.
-Steve
