Java Program For Merge Sort For Doubly Linked List
Last Updated :
23 Jul, 2025
Given a doubly linked list, write a function to sort the doubly linked list in increasing order using merge sort.
For example, the following doubly linked list should be changed to 24810
Merge sort for singly linked list is already discussed. The important change here is to modify the previous pointers also when merging two lists.
Below is the implementation of merge sort for doubly linked list.
Java
// Java program to implement merge sort in
// singly linked list
// Linked List Class
class LinkedList
{
// Head of list
static Node head;
// Node Class
static class Node
{
int data;
Node next, prev;
// Constructor to create a
// new node
Node(int d)
{
data = d;
next = prev = null;
}
}
void print(Node node)
{
Node temp = node;
System.out.println(
"Forward Traversal using next pointer");
while (node != null)
{
System.out.print(node.data + " ");
temp = node;
node = node.next;
}
System.out.println(
"Backward Traversal using prev pointer");
while (temp != null)
{
System.out.print(temp.data + " ");
temp = temp.prev;
}
}
// Split a doubly linked list (DLL) into
// 2 DLLs of half sizes
Node split(Node head)
{
Node fast = head, slow = head;
while (fast.next != null &&
fast.next.next != null)
{
fast = fast.next.next;
slow = slow.next;
}
Node temp = slow.next;
slow.next = null;
return temp;
}
Node mergeSort(Node node)
{
if (node == null ||
node.next == null)
{
return node;
}
Node second = split(node);
// Recur for left and right halves
node = mergeSort(node);
second = mergeSort(second);
// Merge the two sorted halves
return merge(node, second);
}
// Function to merge two linked lists
Node merge(Node first, Node second)
{
// If first linked list is empty
if (first == null)
{
return second;
}
// If second linked list is empty
if (second == null)
{
return first;
}
// Pick the smaller value
if (first.data < second.data)
{
first.next = merge(first.next,
second);
first.next.prev = first;
first.prev = null;
return first;
}
else
{
second.next = merge(first,
second.next);
second.next.prev = second;
second.prev = null;
return second;
}
}
// Driver code
public static void main(String[] args)
{
LinkedList list = new LinkedList();
list.head = new Node(10);
list.head.next = new Node(30);
list.head.next.next = new Node(3);
list.head.next.next.next =
new Node(4);
list.head.next.next.next.next =
new Node(20);
list.head.next.next.next.next.next =
new Node(5);
Node node = null;
node = list.mergeSort(head);
System.out.println(
"Linked list after sorting :");
list.print(node);
}
}
// This code is contributed by Mayank Jaiswal
Output:
Linked List after sorting
Forward Traversal using next pointer
3 4 5 10 20 30
Backward Traversal using prev pointer
30 20 10 5 4 3
Time Complexity: Time complexity of the above implementation is same as time complexity of
MergeSort for arrays. It takes Θ(nLogn) time.
Space Complexity:O(1). We are only using constant amount of extra space.
You may also like to see QuickSort for doubly linked list
Please refer complete article on Merge Sort for Doubly Linked List for more details!
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