You need a stack, but not recursion. For each item, split it on the delimiter. Count the parts. That is your current level. If the current level is the same as the level of the element on top of the stack, pop the stack and push the current item onto it. If the current level is deeper than the top of the stack, push the current item. If the level is smaller (shallower) than the top of the stack, pop until the stack top has a smaller level than the current node, then push the current node.

After popping to the right level, and BEFORE pushing the current node, insert information from the current node into the array owned by the current stack top.

Your nodes are ok, except that I would add level to name and children. Also, add a dummy root node at level 0.

Phil

In reply to Re: Convert delimited string into nested data structure by philcrow
in thread Convert delimited string into nested data structure by Anonymous Monk

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