Let us assume there's a folder structure as shown below: The letters a-d represent folders and the number 1-5 represent video files where for the file n, size(n)=n. So, 1 = 1MB, file 2 = 2MB, etc.
a
├── 1
├── b
│ ├── 2
│ └── 3
└── c
├── 4
└── d
└── 5
3 directories, 5 files
I want to write a script that takes as input a directory (e.g., a), and tells us the total video duration in that folder (iT=immediateTime) and the total video duration in that folder and all its sub-folders (tT=totalTime).
My pseudocode is:
function calcTime(dir)
{
tT = iT = singleLevelCalcTime(dir);
foreach(subdirectory in dir) {
t+= calcTime(subdirectory);
}
echo iT;
echo tT;
return t;
}
Now, according to the Crunch-Turing thesis, essentially, every recursive function is mathematically proven to have an equivalent iterative version. My problem is I can't find any way to do this using just loops. I've read that explicit stacks (instead of the implicit ones generated by the nature of recursion) can solve this, but I can't figure out how.
For example, the first part of the algo is simple - iT can be calculated by the same method as in the original algorithm. Now, the program must enter each sub-directory and perform the same task again. However, without using recursion, I'd have to provide multiple levels of nested loops (unknown number of levels) to loop through each file/folder in each level. Please tell me where my approach is lacking. I can't really comprehend how to build an explicit stack that can solve this!
