Will this break your program?

[Sprad]

What happens when somebody doesn't use the Re: Re: Re: Re: pattern, and perversely changes the title in their reply? (like I did)

Cases like this aside, though, it'd be a welcome addition.

---
A fair fight is a sign of poor planning.

[mikfire]

Sprad, if you look at the XML stream, the parent node id is included probably to avoid exactly this issue.

mikfire

[little]

well, each node should be represented by a node_id in a DB or whatever file U use and this should know (store) the id of its parent, so you can't mess up things. And btw, there is no need to let anode know if it has children or not. If there are children THEY WILL KNOW their parent. Keep it simple: stupid. :-)
btw BmeCat works this way and made it to a standard.

Have a nice day
All decision is left to your taste

[bbfu]

so said little:

And btw, there is no need to let anode [sic] know if it has children or not. If there are children THEY WILL KNOW their parent.

Unless, of course, you want to find all the children of a particular node without doing an exhaustive search of the DB. While not strictly necessary, it can make life simpler in some cases. I think this application might qualify as one of those cases (see Masem's reply). :-)

bbfu
Seasons don't fear The Reaper.
Nor do the wind, the sun, and the rain.
We can be like they are.

[little]

But that blows up your DB to an expensive amount, when you store the children node id's to a node. Remeber, you will never know how many children a node will have. But a child node always has only one parent.
Have a nice day
All decision is left to your taste