StackOverFlowException inside a recursive function

Question

I have a table in database as follows:

MenuItem
-------------
MenuItemId    1 --------+
MenuItemName            |
ParentId      * --------+

Now I have written a recursive function to get all the Parent MenuItems with their children.

private ICollection<MenuItem> GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(MenuItem menuItem, IEnumerable<MenuItem> menuItems)
{
    ICollection<MenuItem>  Children = null;
    foreach (MenuItem mi in menuItems)
    {
        if (mi.ParentMenuItemId != null)
        {
            if (mi.ParentMenuItemId == menuItem.MenuItemId)
            {
                Children.Add(mi);
            }
            else
            {
                return GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(mi, menuItems);
            }
        }
    }

    return Children;
}

Now, I am calling it from another function as follows:

public IEnumerable<MenuItem> GetAllParentMenuItemsWithChildren()
{
    List<MenuItem> MenuItems = new List<MenuItem>();
    IEnumerable<MenuItem> AllMenuItems = null;

    using (MaxContext entityContext = new MaxContext())
    {
        AllMenuItems = (from e in entityContext.MenuItemSet select e).ToList();

        foreach (MenuItem menuItem in entityContext.MenuItemSet)
        {
            if (menuItem.ParentMenuItemId == null)
            {
                menuItem.Children = GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(menuItem, AllMenuItems);
                MenuItems.Add(menuItem);
            }
        }
    }

    return MenuItems;
}

But it gives me stackoverflowException inside the recursive function. I am sure that I am making a minor mistake in that function. Can anybody point out that mistake?

Answer 1

Your GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively() always recurses with mi . It should recurse with mi.ParentMenuItemId instead.

Answer 2

Why are you always passing the same menuItems colleciton into recursive function?

your code should be something along the lines of:

private IEnumerable<MenuItem> GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(MenuItem menuItem)
{
    var children = new List<MenuItem>();
    foreach (MenuItem mi in menuItem.Children)
    { 
        // Why are you checking this?
        if (mi.ParentMenuItemId != null)
        {
            // Why are you checking this?
            if (mi.ParentMenuItemId == menuItem.MenuItemId)
            {
                children.Add(mi);
            }
            else
            {

                children.AddRange(GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(mi))
            }
        }
    }

    return Children;
}

From method name, this is all that it should be doing:

private IEnumerable<MenuItem> GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(MenuItem menuItem)
{
    var children = new List<MenuItem>();
    if (menuItem.Children == null) return children;

    foreach (MenuItem mi in menuItem.Children)
    { 
       children.Add(mi);
       children.AddRange(GetAllChildrenOfSpecificMenuItemRecursively(mi));       
    }

    return Children;
}

Edit:

public class MenuItem
{
    [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int ParentId { get; set; }

    public virtual MenuItem Parent { get; set; }

    [InverseProperty("Parent")]
    public virtual ICollection<MenuItem> Children { get; set; }
}

Answer 3

I think there is a simpler (and maybe faster) way of doing this without using recursion. Something like this:

    public ICollection<MenuItem> GetMenuItemsAsTreeList()
    {
        AllMenuItems = entityContext.MenuItemSet.ToList();

        Dictionary<int, MenuItem> dic = AllMenuItems.ToDictionary(n => n.Id, n => n);

        List<MenuItem> rootMenuItems = new List<MenuItem>();

        foreach (MenuItem menuItem in AllMenuItems)
        {
            if (menuItem.ParentMenuItemId.HasValue)
            {
                MenuItem parent = dic[menuItem.ParentMenuItemId.Value];
                menuItem.ParentMenuItem = parent;
                parent.SubMenuItems.Add(menuItem);
            }
            else
            {
                rootMenuItems.Add(menuItem);
            }
        }

        return rootMenuItems;
    }