Populate a multidimensional array (recursive relationship) from query - asp.net

Question

I'm trying to populate a multidimensional array that would support the following recursive relationship (the DATA is coming from a database table).
This multidimensional array would be used to generate the list below. I have minimal experience with multidimensional arrays in VB.NET. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you think there's a better way to achieve this, let me know.
DATA
ID NAME PARENTID
10 Bobby Brown 50
20 Dave Matthew 80
30 Sergey Boostad 50
40 Linda View 50
50 Bill Lumberg
60 Rina Gina 50
70 Ben Thompson 100
80 Maria Tree 50
90 Gustav Duffield 80
100 Jon Theodore
110 Cedric Loomis 100
120 Jeremy Oscar 100
OUTPUT (to achieve)
[50] - Bill Lumberg
[10] - Bobby Brown
[30] - Sergey Boostad
[40] - Linda View
[60] - Rina Gina
[80] - Maria Tree
[20] - Dave Matthew
[90] - Gustav Duffield
[100] - Jon Theodore
[70] - Ben Thompson
[110] - Cedric Loomis
[120] - Jeremy Oscar

Answer 1

To store a tree in memory, you can create a class like this:
Public Class NameNode
Public Sub New(name As String)
Me.Name = name
End Sub
Public Property Name As String
Public Level As Integer
Public Property Children As New List(Of NameNode)
End Class
Then, you can use it like this:
Dim bill As New NameNode("Bill Lumberg")
bill.Children.Add(New NameNode("Bobby Brown")
bill.Children.Add(New NameNode("Sergey Boostad")
To fill it from a flat DataSet, you'd need to make a recursive method, for instance:
Public Function BuildNode(data As DataSet, nameId As Integer, level As Integer), As NameNode
Dim node As New NameNode()
node.Level = level
' Find name with the ID in the dataset and set the node's name property accordingly
Dim childIds As New List(Of Integer)
' Search Get a list of all the name ID's that have the current ID as their parent
For Each i As Integer In childIds
node.Children.Add(BuildNode(data, i, level + 1))
Next
Return node
End Function
Then you could build the whole Bill Lumberg branch by calling it like this:
Dim bill As NameNode = BuildNode(data, 50, 0)