11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

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Linked list is one of the most important data structures. We

often face situations, where the data is dynamic in nature
and number of data can’t be predicted or the number of
data keeps changing during program execution. Linked lists
are very useful in this type of situations.

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11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

The implementation of a linked list in C++ is done using

pointers. You can go through the pointers chapter
(https://www.codesdope.com/cpp-pointers/) if you don’t
have a strong grip over it. You can also practice a good
number of questions from practice section
(https://www.codesdope.com/practice/cpp-pointers/).

A linked list is made up of many nodes which are

connected in nature. Every node is mainly divided into two
parts, one part holds the data and the other part is
connected to a different node. It is similar to the picture
given below.

Here, each node contains a data member (the upper part of

the picture) and link to another node(lower part of the
picture).

Notice that the last node doesn’t point to any other node
and just stores NULL.

In C++, we achieve this functionality by using structures

and pointers. Each structure represents a node having some
data and also a pointer to another structure of the same
kind. This pointer holds the address of the next node and
creates the link between two nodes. So, the structure is
something like:

struct node
{
int data;
struct node *next;
};

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11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

The first data member of the structure (named node) is an

integer to hold an integer and the second data member is
the pointer to a node (same structure). This means that the
second data member holds the address of the next node
and in this way, every node is connected as represented in
the picture above.

The picture representing the above structure is given below.

And the picture representing the linked list is:

So, if we have access to the first node then we can access

any node of the linked list. For example, if ‘a’ is a node
then a->next is the node next to the ‘a’ (the pointer storing
the address of the next node is named ‘next’).

One thing you should notice here is that we can easily

access the next node but there is no way of accessing the
previous node and this is the limitation of singly linked list.

Coding up a linked list

You are now clear with the concepts of a linked list. Let’s
code it up. The first part is to create a node (structure).

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11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

struct node
{
int data;
node *next;
};

Now, we will create a class ‘linked_list’ which will contain

all the functions and data members required for a linked
list. This class will use the structure ‘node’ for the creation
of the linked list.

The second and the most important part of a linked list is

to always keep the track of the first node because access to
the first node means access to the entire list. So, let’s call
our first node as ‘ head’.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

struct node
{
int data;
node *next;
};

class linked_list
{
private:
node *head,*tail;
public:
linked_list()
{
head = NULL;
tail = NULL;
}
};

int main()
{
linked_list a;
return 0;
}

We have made two nodes – head and tail. We will store the
first node in ‘head’ and the last node in ‘tail’. The
constructor of the linked list is making both ‘head ’ and ‘
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11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

tail’ NULL because we have not yet added any element to

our linked list and thus both are NULL.

Now, let’s create a function of adding a node to our linked

list.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

struct node
{
int data;
node *next;
};

class linked_list
{
private:
node *head,*tail;
public:
linked_list()
{
head = NULL;
tail = NULL;
}

void add_node(int n)
{
node *tmp = new node;
tmp->data = n;
tmp->next = NULL;

if(head == NULL)
{
head = tmp;
tail = tmp;
}
else
{
tail->next = tmp;
tail = tail->next;
}
}
};

int main()
{
linked_list a;
a.add_node(1);
a.add_node(2);
return 0;
}

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11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

If you are not familiar with the ‘malloc’ function, then just
read the dynamic memory allocation chapter
(https://www.codesdope.com/cpp-dynamic-memory/).

node *tmp=new node – We are allocating the space required

for a node by the new operator. Now, ‘tmp’ points to a node

(or space allocated for the node).

tmp->data = n – We are giving a value to the ‘data’ of

‘tmp’ as passed to the function.

tmp->next=NULL – We have given the value to ‘data’ in the

previous line and a value of the pointer ‘next’ (NULL) in this

line and thus making our node ‘tmp’ complete.

The next part after the creation of a node is to join the

nodes and create the linked list. We will first check if the
‘head’ is NULL or not. If the ‘head’ is NULL, it means that
there is no linked list yet and our current node(tmp) will be
the ‘head’.

if(head == NULL)

head = tmp;

tail = tmp;

If ‘head’ is NULL, our current node (tmp) is the first node of

the linked list and this it will be ‘head’ and ‘tail’ both (as it
is also the last element right now).

If ‘head’ is not NULL, it means that we have a linked list

and we just have to add the node at the end of the linked
list.

else

tail->next = tmp;

tail = tail->next;

}
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11/10/22, 6:35 AM C++ : Linked lists in C++ (Singly linked list)

The new node (tmp) will go after the ‘tail’ and then we are
changing the tail because the new node is the new ‘tail’.

Try to understand the code by allocating two to three nodes

by above mechanism and you will get it.

Next:
1. Linked list traversal using while loop and recursion
(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/linked-list-
traversal-using-loop-and-recursion-in-/)

2. Concatenating two linked lists in C++

(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/c-
concatenating-two-linked-lists-in-c/)

3. Inserting a new node in a linked list in C++

(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/inserting-a-
new-node-to-a-linked-list-in-c/)

4. Deletion of a given node from a linked list in C++

(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/c-deletion-of-
a-given-node-from-a-linked-list-in-c/)

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