Chapter Three: Linked Lists

Data Structures and Algorithms

Prepared by:
Ataklti Nguse

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 3.1. Introduction
Data structures can be divided into two types:
Static data structures and dynamic data structures.
Static data structures cannot change their form and its address during
program execution.
Arrays have at least two limitations: their size has to be known and the
data in the array are stored in a continuous block of computer memory.
A linked list is a sequence of data structures and pointer, which are
connected together via links.

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 …Continued

These limitations can be overcome by using

dynamic data structures.
A dynamic data structure can change its form
during program execution.

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 Array Vs Linked list
Arrays are suitable for:
– Inserting/deleting an element at the end.
– Randomly accessing any element.
– Searching the list for a particular value.
Linked lists are suitable for:
– Inserting an element.
– Deleting an element.
– Applications where sequential access is required.

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 Types of Linked List

Singly Linked List − Item navigation is forward only.

Doubly Linked List − Items can be navigated forward and
backward.
Circular Linked List − Last item contains link of the first
element as next and the first element has a link to the last
element as previous.

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 3.2. Singly Linked Lists
Linked lists consist of a number of nodes that store data and links to
other nodes.
Because the node contains a link to the next element in the list, nodes
can be located anywhere in memory.
The simplest form of linked list is the singly linked list.

Singly linked list each node contains some data and a single link to its
successor in the list.
A linked list is made up of a chain of nodes.

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 …Continued
Linked lists are the most basic self-referential structures.
Linked lists allow you to have a chain of structs with related data.
Each link is linked with its next link using pointer.
Last link carries a link as null to mark the end of the list.

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 Basic Operations of Linked List
Following are the basic operations supported by a list.
Creating a list Node/new node

Insertion

Display( Reverse)

Traversing the list

Deletion

Search

Sorting

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 3.2.1 Creating and Representation
Singly Linked Lists in C++
Now examine how some of the basic linked list operations
can be performed.

A linked list is a data structure that is built from structures

and pointers.

A linked list can be represented by a diagram like this one:

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 ….Continued

The last node has a link to the special value NULL, which any pointer can
point to, to show that it is the last link in the chain.

There is also another special pointer, can called Start (also called head),
which points to the first link in the chain so that we can keep track of it.

Defining the data structure for a linked list

struct node { char name[20];
int age ;
float height;
node *next ;
};

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struct node *start_ptr
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= NULL; 10
 Example
• Example to create Node and Display with their Information's.

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 Insertion a node

1. Insertion at the top of the list

2. Insertion at the end of the list
3. Insertion in the middle of the list

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 Insertion At the beginning
Adding a node to the beginning of a linked list is performed in four steps
Create a new Node in memory.
Initialise the info member to a particular Data members
Because the node is being added to the front of the list, the next member
becomes a pointer to the first node of the list, that is, the current value of
start.
The new node now precedes all the nodes in the list, but we need to
update the value of start to reflect this fact.
Therefore, start is made to point to the newly created node

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 Example
Example to create Node , Insert Node at the Beginning and Display

with their Information's.

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 Insertion a node to the end
Adding a node to the end of the list consists of five steps
Create a new Node in memory.
Initialise the info member to a particular data members.
Because the node is being added at the end of the list, the next
member is set to null.
The node is included in the list by making the next member of
the last node in the list point to the newly created node
The new node now follows all the nodes in the list, but we
need to update the value of tail to reflect this fact.
Therefore, tail is made to point to the newly created node
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 Example

Example to create Node ,Insert node AT the End and

Display with their information's.

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 Insert a Node between node
Adding a node to the beginning of a linked list is performed in four
steps

Create a new Node in memory.

Initialise the info member to a particular Data members

Because the node is being added to between nodes they need two
temporary nodes acting as the previous node and next node by
traversing and counting of the specific position .
The previous node points to the new created node and the new created
node point to the next node

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 Adding Nodes
• When a node is added at the beginning,
– Only one next pointer needs to be modified.
• head is made to point to the new node.
• New node points to the previously first element.

• When a node is added at the end,

– Two next pointers need to be modified.
• Last node now points to the new node.
• New node points to NULL.

• When a node is added in the middle,

– Two next pointers need to be modified.
• Previous node now points to the new node.
• New node points to the next node
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 Deletion Operation

 Deletion is also a more than one step process.

 First, locate the target node to be removed, by
using searching algorithms.
• For deletion:
– The next pointer of the item immediately
preceding the one to be deleted is altered, and
made to point to the item following the deleted
item.

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 Deletion
• Deleting from the top of the list
• Deleting from the end of the list
• Deleting from the middle of the list

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 Delete AT the Head
• The 3 steps used by deleteFromHead to remove the first node of a
list:
• First we remember the location of the first node by making a
temporary variable tmp point to it
• Now we move the head pointer to point to the second node in the
list, which will now be the first node
• Finally, we use the tmp variable to delete the original first node.

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 Delete node from end
• Function deleteFromTail() removes the last element from the list. :
• A temporary variable tmp is set to point to the second-last node in
the list.
• After deletion, this node will become the new tail of the list
• The tail node of the list is deleted
• Because tail is now pointing to a non-existent node, it is set to
point to the new last node, currently pointed to by tmp
• Similarly, the next member of this node is also pointing to nothing.
• Because it is the new last node, its next member is set to null

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 Delete at anywhere(Middle)
• It may be at the beginning, the end or somewhere in the middle of the
list.
• This general case is handled by the function deleteNode(),
• The required node is located in the list, and two pointers are assigned:
• pred is set to point to the predecessor to the node, and tmp is set to
point to the node itself.
• The next member of the node pointed to by pred is made to point to
the successor of the node to be deleted.
• Effectively, we are telling the list to skip out the required
• Finally we use the tmp variable to delete the required node

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 Doubly Linked Lists

• A doubly linked list is one where there are links from each node
in both directions:

• Fig Doubly linked List

• info: the user's data
• next, back: the address of the next and previous node in the list

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 Continued…
• Each node in the list has two pointers, one to the
next node and one to the previous one - again, the
start and ends of the list are defined by NULL
pointers.
• With the doubly linked list, we can move the
current pointer backwards and forwards at will.

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 Creating Doubly Linked Lists

• The nodes for a doubly linked list would be defined

as follows:
• struct node { char name[20];
node *nxt;
node *prv;
};
node *current;

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 Circular Lists
 In some situations, a linked list is needed that forms a ring,
 i.e. there are no null pointers to indicate the end of the list,
and each node
 Such a structure is called a circular linked list, as a successor
node.
 they can be either singly linked or doubly linked

(a) A circular linked list; (b) a circular doubly linked list

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 »I Thank You

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