how to strip unselected items from a QTreeWidgetItem branch

codeZombie

I need to clone a branch in a QTreeWidget where only selected items are returned. For example...

menu 1
 |-not a menu 1
 |-not a menu 2 (*)
 |-menu 2 (*)
     |-not a menu 3
     |-menu 3
         |-not a menu 4 (*)

If I call tree->selectedItems() I get [not a menu 2, menu 2, not a menu 4]. I then clone the highest level items. Code abbreviated...

bool highestLevel(QTreeWidgetItem *item);
QTreeWidgetItem* stripUnselected(QTreeWidgetItem *item);

for (i < selectedTotal) {
  // only want highest level items
  if (!highestLevel(items[i])) continue;
  clone = items[i]->clone();
  onlySelected = stripUnselected(clone);
}

The highestLevel function tests whether the item has a parent selected. If there's a selected parent it skips ahead to the next iteration. The stipUnselected function is where I'm having trouble. How can I loop through the entire cloned branch, detect unselected items, remove them, but also retain their children?

In the example above the onlySelected item would contain...

// first iteration
onlySelected = not a menu 2
// second iteration
onlySelected = menu 2 > not a menu 4

How can I code the stripUnselected function?