I currently was tasked to make a genogram for a family consisting of siblings, parents with aunts and uncles with grandparents and greatgrandparents for only blood relatives. My current algorithm is using recursion. but I am wondering how to do it in non recursive way to make it more efficient. it is programmed in c# using graphics to draw on a bitmap. Current algorithm for calculating x position, the y position is by getting the generation number. public void StartCalculatePosition() { // Search the start node (The only node with targetFlg set to true) Person start = null; foreach (Person p in PersonDic.Values) { if (start == null) start = p; if (p.Targetflg) { start = p; break; } } CalcPositionRecurse(start); // Normalize the position (shift all values to positive value) // Get the minimum value (must be negative) // Then offset the position of all marriage and person with that to make it start from zero float minPosition = float.MaxValue; foreach (Person p in PersonDic.Values) { if (minPosition > p.Position) { minPosition = p.Position; } } if (minPosition < 0) { foreach (Person p in PersonDic.Values) { p.Position -= minPosition; } foreach (Marriage m in MarriageList) { m.ParentsPosition -= minPosition; m.ChildrenPosition -= minPosition; } } } /// <summary> /// Calculate position of genogram using recursion /// </summary> /// <param name="psn"></param> private void CalcPositionRecurse(Person psn) { // End the recursion if (psn.BirthMarriage == null || psn.BirthMarriage.Parents.Count == 0) { psn.Position = 0.0f; if (psn.BirthMarriage != null) { psn.BirthMarriage.ParentsPosition = 0.0f; psn.BirthMarriage.ChildrenPosition = 0.0f; } CalculateSiblingPosition(psn); return; } // Left recurse if (psn.Father != null) { CalcPositionRecurse(psn.Father); } // Right recurse if (psn.Mother != null) { CalcPositionRecurse(psn.Mother); } // Merge Position if (psn.Father != null && psn.Mother != null) { AdjustConflict(psn.Father, psn.Mother); // Position person in center of parent psn.Position = (psn.Father.Position + psn.Mother.Position) / 2; psn.BirthMarriage.ParentsPosition = psn.Position; psn.BirthMarriage.ChildrenPosition = psn.Position; } else { // Single mom or single dad if (psn.Father != null) { psn.Position = psn.Father.Position; psn.BirthMarriage.ParentsPosition = psn.Position; psn.BirthMarriage.ChildrenPosition = psn.Position; } else if (psn.Mother != null) { psn.Position = psn.Mother.Position; psn.BirthMarriage.ParentsPosition = psn.Position; psn.BirthMarriage.ChildrenPosition = psn.Position; } else { // Should not happen, checking in start of function } } // Arrange the siblings base on my position (left younger, right older) CalculateSiblingPosition(psn); } private float GetRightBoundaryAncestor(Person psn) { float rPos = psn.Position; // Get the rightmost position among siblings foreach (Person sibling in psn.Siblings) { if (sibling.Position > rPos) { rPos = sibling.Position; } } if (psn.Father != null) { float rFatherPos = GetRightBoundaryAncestor(psn.Father); if (rFatherPos > rPos) { rPos = rFatherPos; } } if (psn.Mother != null) { float rMotherPos = GetRightBoundaryAncestor(psn.Mother); if (rMotherPos > rPos) { rPos = rMotherPos; } } return rPos; } private float GetLeftBoundaryAncestor(Person psn) { float rPos = psn.Position; // Get the rightmost position among siblings foreach (Person sibling in psn.Siblings) { if (sibling.Position < rPos) { rPos = sibling.Position; } } if (psn.Father != null) { float rFatherPos = GetLeftBoundaryAncestor(psn.Father); if (rFatherPos < rPos) { rPos = rFatherPos; } } if (psn.Mother != null) { float rMotherPos = GetLeftBoundaryAncestor(psn.Mother); if (rMotherPos < rPos) { rPos = rMotherPos; } } return rPos; } /// <summary> /// Check if two parent group has conflict and compensate on the conflict /// </summary> /// <param name="leftGroup"></param> /// <param name="rightGroup"></param> public void AdjustConflict(Person leftGroup, Person rightGroup) { float leftMax = GetRightBoundaryAncestor(leftGroup); leftMax += 0.5f; float rightMin = GetLeftBoundaryAncestor(rightGroup); rightMin -= 0.5f; float diff = leftMax - rightMin; if (diff > 0.0f) { float moveHalf = Math.Abs(diff) / 2; RecurseMoveAncestor(leftGroup, 0 - moveHalf); RecurseMoveAncestor(rightGroup, moveHalf); } } /// <summary> /// Recursively move a person and all his/her ancestor /// </summary> /// <param name="psn"></param> /// <param name="moveUnit"></param> public void RecurseMoveAncestor(Person psn, float moveUnit) { psn.Position += moveUnit; foreach (Person siblings in psn.Siblings) { if (siblings.Id != psn.Id) { siblings.Position += moveUnit; } } if (psn.BirthMarriage != null) { psn.BirthMarriage.ChildrenPosition += moveUnit; psn.BirthMarriage.ParentsPosition += moveUnit; } if (psn.Father != null) { RecurseMoveAncestor(psn.Father, moveUnit); } if (psn.Mother != null) { RecurseMoveAncestor(psn.Mother, moveUnit); } } /// <summary> /// Calculate the position of the siblings /// </summary> /// <param name="psn"></param> /// <param name="anchor"></param> public void CalculateSiblingPosition(Person psn) { if (psn.Siblings.Count == 0) { return; } List<Person> sibling = psn.Siblings; int argidx; for (argidx = 0; argidx < sibling.Count; argidx++) { if (sibling[argidx].Id == psn.Id) { break; } } // Compute position for each brother that is younger that person int idx; for (idx = argidx - 1; idx >= 0; idx--) { sibling[idx].Position = sibling[idx + 1].Position - 1; } for (idx = argidx + 1; idx < sibling.Count; idx++) { sibling[idx].Position = sibling[idx - 1].Position + 1; } }