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Assignment 1

This document discusses modifying the structure of a doubly linked list to store only the XOR of the next and previous node pointers in each node, rather than storing two pointers. This saves space by storing only one pointer per node. It then provides examples of traversing the list from front to back and vice versa, reversing the list order, and sorting the list, all while only storing the single XOR pointer in each node.

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Nishanth Ravi
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38 views

Assignment 1

This document discusses modifying the structure of a doubly linked list to store only the XOR of the next and previous node pointers in each node, rather than storing two pointers. This saves space by storing only one pointer per node. It then provides examples of traversing the list from front to back and vice versa, reversing the list order, and sorting the list, all while only storing the single XOR pointer in each node.

Uploaded by

Nishanth Ravi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CS29003 ALGORITHMS LABORATORY

(PDS Brush Up)


Date: 18 – July – 2019

Doubly linked list with one pointer per node!


Recall that, in a singly linked list, every node of a linked list stores some data value and a pointer to the
next node in the list; the value of the next pointer of the last node is set to NULL. The idea of singly
linked list has been extended to doubly linked list as follows. In a doubly linked list, we store a pointer
to the next node and another pointer to its previous node. Please refer to ?? for a pictorial overview.

prev next prev next prev next


= data = = data = = data =
NULL 300 100 ... ••• ... NULL

100 300 800

Figure 1: Usual structure of a doubly linked list with two pointers per node.

Let us tweak this basic structure of a doubly linked list as follows. Instead of storing two pointers per
node, let us store only XOR of these two pointers in every node thereby saving (in every node) the space
required to store one pointer. Please refer to ?? for a pictorial overview.

data data data


100
NULL (Address (Address
XOR of previous ••• of previous
300 node) node)
(Address of XOR XOR
next node) (Address of NULL
next node)
100 300 800

Figure 2: Modified structure of a doubly linked list with one pointer per node.

The XOR function is defined in the following manner. Let X = (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) and
Y = (y1 , y2 , . . . , yn ) be two Boolean strings of length n bits each. Then X XOR Y =
(x1 XOR y1 , x2 XOR y2 , . . . , xn XOR yn ) where 0 XOR 0 = 0, 1 XOR 1 = 0, 0 XOR 1 = 1, 1 XOR 0 = 1.
One can easily verify the following properties of the XOR function.

B X XOR Y = Y XOR X

B (X XOR Y) XOR Z = X XOR (Y XOR Z)

B X XOR X = 0̄

Convince yourself that all the usual operations on a doubly linked list can still be carried out correctly
in our modified representation. In this exercise, you first take the length n of a doubly linked list from the

1
user. Then create a doubly linked list of length n with random data (integers). Needless to say that you
should only store the XOR of the addresses of the previous and the next node in every node as discussed
above. For every doubly linked list, you maintain a head and a tail pointer pointing respectively to the
first and the last node of the list. In this doubly linked list, you perform the following operations:

1. Traverse the doubly linked list both from the front to the end and from the end to the front and
print data values in that order. The prototype of your functions should be as follows.

void traverse from front to end(struct node *head);

void traverse from end to front(struct node *tail);

2. Reverse your doubly linked list. Once the doubly linked list is created, you SHOULD NOT create
any new node and change data field of any node. The prototype of your function should be as
follows.
void reverse(struct node **head, struct node **tail);

Observe that you need to pass double pointers here since the doubly linked list is going to change
unlike traversal functions.

3. Sort the doubly linked list in non-decreasing order of data values. Once the doubly linked list
is created, you SHOULD NOT create any new node and change data field of any node. The
prototype of your function should be as follows.

void sort(struct node **head, struct node **tail);

Here too you need to pass double pointers for the same reason.

Sample Output
n = 10
Doubly linked list traversed from front to end: 3, 10, −12, 34, −10, −50, 25, 1, −18, −71
Doubly linked list traversed from end to front: − 71, −18, 1, 25, −50, −10, 34, −12, 10, 3
Reversed doubly linked list traversed from front to end: − 71, −18, 1, 25, −50, −10, 34, −12, 10, 3
Sorted doubly linked list traversed from front to end: − 71, −50, −18, −12, −10, 1, 3, 10, 25, 34

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