Inserting a structured file into a binary tree

Heya, I'm having a spot of trouble trying to place a structured file into a binary tree. I'll try to explain what I'm trying to accomplish as best as I can.

I have a file, containing a binary tree structure that looks like this:

Code:

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[(x,y)[...][...]]

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example:

Code:

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[(6,2)[(4,1)[(1,1)[][]][(5,4)[][]]][(9,3)[][]]]

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after inserting into a tree should look like this:

Code:

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            (6,2)
            /      \
      (4,2)      (9,3)
      /  \
 (1,1)  (5,4)

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Basically, the ordered pairs are what I put into the tree and [] means an empty tree.

The problem is that I can sorta form an algorithm in my head, but I don't know how to go about coding this. So far, I've tried putting the structure into a character array and going one by one to search for the numbers, however I don't know how to set it up so that I can recursively build my tree.

Can anyone help me? I'm not looking for a detailed program, but just a simple setup to point me in the right direction.

Thank you for your time :D

You can use a recursive parser, like this (pseudo-code):

Code:

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function parse(input, i)
    if input[i] = ']' return null

    node = new node
    node.value = parse an (x,y)
    accept a '['
    node.left = parse(input, position after the '[')
    accept a ']'
    accept a '['
    node.right = parse(input, position after the '[')
    accept a ']'
    return node
end

tree = parse(the input file)

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The accept call would throw an error if the next character was something else besides what you passed to it, otherwise it would increment i.

Hope this helps.