DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS

LESSON 2

List Abstract Data Types and Linked Lists

CONTENT
1. Introduction to List Abstract Data Type
2. Generic Operation on the List
3. Introduction to Linked List
4. Implement Basic Operation of Linked List
• Insert
• Display
• Delete

5. Summary

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 2

List Abstract Data Type (List ADT)
• List ADT is a dynamic ordered tuple of homogenous elements
• A0, A1, A2, … , AN-1
• where Ai is the i-th element of list

• The position of Ai is i ; positions range from 0 to N-1 inclusive

• The size of list is N (a list with no elements is called an “empty list”)

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 3

Generic Operations on a List
• insert(e, position) //insert e into the list at the specified position
• remove(e) //remove e from the list if present
• find(e) //return position of the first occurrence of e
• findKth(int k) //return the element in the specified position
• isEmpty() //return true if the list has no elements

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 4

Array Implementation of a List ADT
• Use an array to store the element of the list.
• Also, array have a fixed capacity, but can fix with implementation.
• You must implement the actual code of above methods:
• insert(e, position) //insert e into the list at the specified position
• remove(e) //remove e from the list if present
• find(e) //return position of the first occurrence of e
• findKth(int k) //return the element in the specified position
• isEmpty() //return true if the list has no elements

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 5

Linked List
• A linked list is a sequence of data structures, which are connected
together via links.
• Linked List is a sequence of links which contains items. Each link
contains a connection to another link. Linked list is the second most-
used data structure after array
• The important terms to understand the concept of Linked List:
• Link − Each link of a linked list can store a data called an element
• Next − Each link of a linked list contains a link to the next link called Next
• LinkedList − A Linked List contains the connection link to the first link called First

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 6

Linked List Representation
• Linked list can be visualized as a chain of nodes, where every node
points to the next node

• As per the above illustration, following are the important points to be

considered.
• Linked List contains a link element called first
• Each link carries a data field(s) and a link field called next
• Each link is linked with its next link using its next link
• Last link carries a link as null to mark the end of the list
DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 7
Types of Linked List
• Simple Linked List − Item navigation is forward only (See above figure).
• Doubly Linked List − Items can be navigated forward and backward.

• Circular Linked List − Last item contains link of the first element as next
and the first element has a link to the last element as previous.

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 8

Basic Operations
• Insertion − Adds an element at the beginning of the list
• Display − Displays the complete list
• Deletion − Deletes an element at the beginning of the list
• Delete − Deletes an element using the given key
• Search − Searches an element using the given key

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 9

Linked List Implementation
• Singly Linked List
struct node {
int data;
struct node *next;
}

• Doubly Linked List

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

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 10

Insert - Step 1
• Adds an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 11

Insert – Step 2
• Adds an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 12

Insert – Step 3
• Adds an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 13

Insert – Step 4
• Adds an element at the beginning of the list

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Insert Example

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 15

Display Linked List

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 16

Delete First Element – Step 1
• Delete an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 17

Delete First Element – Step 2
• Delete an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 18

Delete First Element – Step 3
• Delete an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 19

Delete First Element – Step 4
• Delete an element at the beginning of the list

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 20

Delete First Element Example

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 21

Delete Specific Element – Step 1
• Delete an element at the specific position.
• Deletion is also a more than one step process. We shall learn with
pictorial representation. First, locate the target node to be removed, by
using searching algorithms.

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 22

Delete Specific Element – Step 2
• The left (previous) node of the target node now should point to the next
node of the target node −

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 23

Delete Specific Element – Step 3
• This will remove the link that was pointing to the target node. Now, using
the following code, we will remove what the target node is pointing at.

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 24

Delete Specific Element – Step 4
• We need to use the deleted node. We can keep that in memory otherwise
we can simply deallocate memory and wipe off the target node
completely.

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 25

Delete Specific Element – Example

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 26

Delete Specific Element – Example

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 27

Bookstore Linked List Example
// create a book struct
struct book
{
int isbn;
char title[100];
};

// create a node in singly linked list

struct node
{
struct book book;
struct node *next;
};

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 28

Summary
• List ADT is a dynamic ordered tuple of homogenous elements.
• The position of Ai is i ; positions range from 0 to N-1 inclusive.
• The size of list is N (a list with no elements is called an “empty list”).
• A linked list is a sequence of data structures, which are connected
together via links.
• Linked List is a sequence of links which contains items. Each link
contains a connection to another link. Linked list is the second most-
used data structure after array.

DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS 29

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