The stacks and recursion elimination article captures the idea of externalizing the stack frame on heap, but does not provide a straightforward and repeatable way to convert. Below is one.
While converting to iterative code, one must be aware that the recursive call may happen from an arbitrarily deep code block. Its not just the parameters, but also the point to return to the logic that remains to be executed and the state of variables which participate in subsequent conditionals, which matter. Below is a very simple way to convert to iterative code with least changes.
Consider this recursive code:
struct tnode
{
tnode(int n) : data(n), left(0), right(0) {}
tnode *left, *right;
int data;
};
void insertnode_recur(tnode *node, int num)
{
if(node->data <= num)
{
if(node->right == NULL)
node->right = new tnode(num);
else
insertnode(node->right, num);
}
else
{
if(node->left == NULL)
node->left = new tnode(num);
else
insertnode(node->left, num);
}
}
Iterative code:
struct stackitem
{
stackitem(tnode *t, int n) : node(t), num(n), ra(0) {}
tnode *node; int num;
int ra;
};
void insertnode_iter(tnode *node, int num)
{
vector<stackitem> v;
v.push_back(stackitem(node, num));
while(v.size())
{
stackitem &si = v.back();
switch(si.ra)
{
case 1: goto ra1;
case 2: goto ra2;
default: break;
}
if(si.node->data <= si.num)
{
if(si.node->right == NULL)
si.node->right = new tnode(si.num);
else
{
si.ra=1;
v.push_back(stackitem(si.node->right, si.num));
continue;
ra1: ;
}
}
else
{
if(si.node->left == NULL)
si.node->left = new tnode(si.num);
else
{
si.ra=2;
v.push_back(stackitem(si.node->left, si.num));
continue;
ra2: ;
}
}
v.pop_back();
}
}
Notice how the structure of the code still remains true to the recursive logic and modifications are minimal, resulting in less number of bugs. For comparison, I have marked the changes with ++ and --. Most of the new inserted blocks except v.push_back, are common to any converted iterative logic
void insertnode_iter(tnode *node, int num)
{
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
vector<stackitem> v;
v.push_back(stackitem(node, num));
while(v.size())
{
stackitem &si = v.back();
switch(si.ra)
{
case 1: goto ra1;
case 2: goto ra2;
default: break;
}
------------------------
if(si.node->data <= si.num)
{
if(si.node->right == NULL)
si.node->right = new tnode(si.num);
else
{
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
si.ra=1;
v.push_back(stackitem(si.node->right, si.num));
continue;
ra1: ;
-------------------------
}
}
else
{
if(si.node->left == NULL)
si.node->left = new tnode(si.num);
else
{
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
si.ra=2;
v.push_back(stackitem(si.node->left, si.num));
continue;
ra2: ;
-------------------------
}
}
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
v.pop_back();
}
-------------------------
}