Using the same recursive procedure with different types

[ferenczi]

Hello,

I have a question:

Algorithm DFS(Vertex V)
	mark[V] := 1;
	print[V];
	for each (edge (V, W)) do
		if mark[W] = 0;
 			DFS(W);

I would like to realize this recursive procedure (depth-first search), but in my graph representation (with adjacency lists) I use two different classes, one for the vertex, one for the edge, like this:

class Edge;
			
class Vertex
{
	public:
		Vertex* vNext;
		char Element;
		bool marked;
		
		Edge* adjList;
		
		// Contructor...
};

class Edge
{
	public:
		Edge* eNext;
		char Element;
		bool marked;
		int weight;
		
		// Contructor...
};

So I cannot use the procedure with two different parameters (Vertex and Edge), or is there any way to preserve the recursion with different parameter types?

Thank you for your help!

[thelamb]

There definitely is, and it is a big part of the power of C++.
What you're looking for are called "templates", there are a lot of references about it on Google but of course if something is unclear you can always post here and someone will explain ;)

Edit:
You could also improve your design. When you are writing classes in C++ you should always ask yourself "Is there any shared data between these classes" If so, you can consider using a base class and let the Vertex and Edge classes inherit from this.

You could then write your algorithm function to take a "BaseClass*" or "BaseClass&" as argument, and C++ will figure out by itself if you've passed a Vertex or an Edge.

Assume that you have a BaseClass that both Vertex and Edge inherit from in this example:

int myFunction( BaseClass* pBase )
{
   pBase->Element; 
}

int main()
{
   BaseClass* pVertex = new Vertex();
   BaseClass* pEdge   = new Edge();

   myFunction( pVertex );  // accesses pVertex->Element
   myFunction( pEdge );    // accesses pEdge->Element
}