flatten

   [common]  To  remove structural information, esp. to filter something
   with  an  implicit  tree  structure into a simple sequence of leaves;
   also  tends  to imply mapping to {flat-ASCII}. "This code flattens an
   expression with parentheses into an equivalent {canonical} form."

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {flat}{flat-file}{sharchive}]