pointers and recursive algorithms

[Cássio M . M . Pereira]

Dear list,

I would like to implement a recursive tree algorithm in octave.
As far as I know, Octave does not support pointer types.
It seems to me that the most appropriate structure to implement a tree
in octave would be a (nested) cell array.

However, how can I, for instance, make a recursive binary search in a tree
(implemented as a cell array) and return a pointer to the cell where the
information is stored?

If pointers are not available, is there another way to get around this?

Thank you,
Cássio Pereira