Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Carnegie Mellon

Linked Lists in C and C++

Professor Hugh C. Lauer

CS-2303, System Programming Concepts
(Slides include materials from The C Programming Language, 2nd edition, by Kernighan and Ritchie,
Absolute C++, by Walter Savitch, The C++ Programming Language, Special Edition, by Bjarne Stroustrup,
and from C: How to Program, 5th and 6th editions, by Deitel and Deitel)

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists 1

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

Common Data Structures in C and C++

 Linked lists – Nothing specific in K&R
 One-way
 Doubly-linked
 Circular
 Trees –K&R §6.5
 Binary
 Multiple branches
 Hash Tables – K&R §6.6
 Combine arrays and linked list
 Especially for searching for objects by value

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Definitions
 Linked List
 A data structure in which each element is dynamically allocated
and in which elements point to each other to define a linear
relationship Note: elements are usually the
 Singly- or doubly-linked same type (but not always).
 Variations: stack, queue, circular list
 Tree
 A data structure in which each element is dynamically allocated
and in which each element has more than one potential
successor
 Defines a partial order

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 3

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Linked List

struct listItem {
type payload;
struct listItem *next; payload
}; next
payload
next
payload
payload next
next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 4

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Linked List (continued)

 Items of list are usually same type
 Generally obtained from malloc()
 Each item points to next item
 Last item points to null
 Need “head” to point to first item!

 “Payload” of item may be almost anything

 A single member or multiple members
 Any type of object whose size is known at compile time
 Including struct, union, char * or other pointers
 Also arrays of fixed size at compile time (see p. 214)

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Usage of Linked Lists

 Not massive numbers of items
 Linear search is okay
 Sorting not usually necessary
 or sometimes not possible
 Need to add and delete data “on the fly”
 Even from middle of list
 Items often need to be added to or deleted from the
“ends”

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Linked List (continued)

struct listItem {
type payload;
struct listItem *next;
};
struct listItem *head;

payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

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 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

Adding an Item to a List

struct listItem *p, *q;
 Add an item pointed to by q after item pointed to by p

 Neither p nor q is NULL

payload
next
payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 8

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

Adding an Item to a List

listItem *addAfter(listItem *p, listItem *q){
q -> next = p -> next;
p -> next = q;
return p; payload
} next
payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 9

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

Adding an Item to a List

listItem *addAfter(listItem *p, listItem *q){
q -> next = p -> next;
p -> next = q;
return p; payload
} next
payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

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 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Question: What to do if we cannot
guarantee that p and q are non-NULL?
Adding an Item to a List
listItem *addAfter(listItem *p, listItem *q){
q -> next = p -> next;
p -> next = q;
return p; payload
} next
payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 11

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

Adding an Item to a List

listItem *addAfter(listItem *p, listItem *q){
if (p && q) {
q -> next = p -> next;
p -> next = q;
} payload
return p;
next
}
payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 12

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

What about Adding an Item

before another Item?
struct listItem *p;
 Add an item before item pointed to by p (p != NULL)

payload
next
payload
next
payload
next payload
next
payload
next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 13

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What about Adding an Item

before another Item?
 Answer:–
 Need to search list from beginning to find previous item
 Add new item after previous item

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 14

 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie Mellon

Doubly-Linked List
struct listItem {
type payload;
listItem *prev;
listItem *next;
};
struct listItem *head, *tail;

payload payload
prev next prev next payload
payload prev next
prev next

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 15

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Other Kinds of List Structures

 Queue — FIFO (First In, First Out)
 Items added at end
 Items removed from beginning
 Stack — LIFO (Last In, First Out)
 Items added at beginning, removed from beginning
 Circular list
 Last item points to first item
 Head may point to first or last item
 Items added to end, removed from beginning

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 16

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Optional:–
Circular List struct listItem *head;
struct listItem *tail;

payload
payload
next
next
payload
payload
next
next
listItem *addToTail (listItem *p, listItem *tail){
if (p && tail) {
p -> next = tail -> next;
tail = tail -> next = p;
} else if (p) {
tail = p -> next = p;
}
return tail;
}
CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 17
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Questions?

CS-2303, A-Term 2010 Linked Lists in C and C++ 18