JavaScript recursive search in JSON object

Question

I am trying to return a specific node in a JSON object structure which looks like this

{
    "id":"0",
    "children":[
        {
            "id":"1",
            "children":[...]
        },
        {
            "id":"2",
            "children":[...]
        }
    ]
}

So it's a tree-like child-parent relation. Every node has a unique ID. I'm trying to find a specific node like this

function findNode(id, currentNode) {

    if (id == currentNode.id) {
        return currentNode;
    } else {
        currentNode.children.forEach(function (currentChild) {            
            findNode(id, currentChild);
        });
    }
}  

I execute the search for example by findNode("10", rootNode). But even though the search finds a match the function always returns undefined. I have a bad feeling that the recursive function doesn't stop after finding the match and continues running an finally returns undefined because in the latter recursive executions it doesn't reach a return point, but I'm not sure how to fix this.

Please help!

Answer 1

When searching recursively, you have to pass the result back by returning it. You're not returning the result of findNode(id, currentChild), though.

function findNode(id, currentNode) {
    var i,
        currentChild,
        result;

    if (id == currentNode.id) {
        return currentNode;
    } else {

        // Use a for loop instead of forEach to avoid nested functions
        // Otherwise "return" will not work properly
        for (i = 0; i < currentNode.children.length; i += 1) {
            currentChild = currentNode.children[i];

            // Search in the current child
            result = findNode(id, currentChild);

            // Return the result if the node has been found
            if (result !== false) {
                return result;
            }
        }

        // The node has not been found and we have no more options
        return false;
    }
}