C Program For Deleting A Node In A Doubly Linked List

Last Updated : 25 Apr, 2023

Pre-requisite: Doubly Link List Set 1| Introduction and Insertion

Write a function to delete a given node in a doubly-linked list.
Original Doubly Linked List

Approach: The deletion of a node in a doubly-linked list can be divided into three main categories:

After the deletion of the head node.

After the deletion of the middle node.

After the deletion of the last node.

All three mentioned cases can be handled in two steps if the pointer of the node to be deleted and the head pointer is known.

If the node to be deleted is the head node then make the next node as head.
If a node is deleted, connect the next and previous node of the deleted node.

Algorithm

Let the node to be deleted be del.
If node to be deleted is head node, then change the head pointer to next current head.

if headnode == del then
      headnode =  del.nextNode

Set next of previous to del, if previous to del exists.

if del.nextNode != none 
      del.nextNode.previousNode = del.previousNode

Set prev of next to del, if next to del exists.

if del.previousNode != none 
      del.previousNode.nextNode = del.next

C

// C program to implement
// the above approach
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
 
// A node of the doubly linked list 
struct Node 
{
    int data;
    struct Node* next;
    struct Node* prev;
};
 
/* Function to delete a node in a Doubly 
   Linked List. head_ref --> pointer to 
   head node pointer. del  -->  pointer 
   to node to be deleted. */
void deleteNode(struct Node** head_ref, 
                struct Node* del)
{
    // Base case 
    if (*head_ref == NULL || del == NULL)
        return;
 
    // If node to be deleted is head node 
    if (*head_ref == del)
        *head_ref = del->next;
 
    /* Change next only if node to be deleted 
       is NOT the last node */
    if (del->next != NULL)
        del->next->prev = del->prev;
 
    /* Change prev only if node to be deleted 
       is NOT the first node */
    if (del->prev != NULL)
        del->prev->next = del->next;
 
    // Finally, free the memory occupied by del
    free(del);
    return;
}
 
// UTILITY FUNCTIONS 
/* Function to insert a node at the 
   beginning of the Doubly Linked List */
void push(struct Node** head_ref, 
          int new_data)
{
    // Allocate node 
    struct Node* new_node = 
           (struct Node*)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));
 
    // Put in the data  
    new_node->data = new_data;
 
    /* Since we are adding at the beginning,
       prev is always NULL */
    new_node->prev = NULL;
 
    // Link the old list of the new node 
    new_node->next = (*head_ref);
 
    // Change prev of head node to new node 
    if ((*head_ref) != NULL)
        (*head_ref)->prev = new_node;
 
    // Move the head to point to the new node 
    (*head_ref) = new_node;
}
 
/* Function to print nodes in a given doubly 
   linked list. This function is same as 
   printList() of singly linked list */
void printList(struct Node* node)
{
    while (node != NULL) 
    {
        printf("%d ", node->data);
        node = node->next;
    }
}
 
// Driver code
int main()
{
    // Start with the empty list 
    struct Node* head = NULL;
 
    /* Let us create the doubly 
       linked list 10<->8<->4<->2 */
    push(&head, 2);
    push(&head, 4);
    push(&head, 8);
    push(&head, 10);
 
    printf(
    "Original Linked list ");
    printList(head);
 
    /* Delete nodes from the doubly 
       linked list */
    // Delete first node
    deleteNode(&head, head); 
 
    // Delete middle node
    deleteNode(&head, head->next); 
 
    // Delete last node
    deleteNode(&head, head->next); 
 
    /* Modified linked list will be 
       NULL<-8->NULL */
    printf(
    "Modified Linked list ");
    printList(head);
 
    getchar();
}

Output:

Original Linked list 10 8 4 2 
Modified Linked list 8

Complexity Analysis:

Time Complexity: O(1).
Since traversal of the linked list is not required so the time complexity is constant.
Space Complexity: O(1).
As no extra space is required, so the space complexity is constant.

Please refer complete article on Delete a node in a Doubly Linked List for more details!

C++ Program To Delete Middle Of Linked List

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