Linked list

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 1

Why Linked Lists?
• Advantages of Arrays:
❖ Data access is faster
❖ Simple
• Disadvantages:
❖Size of the array is fixed.
❖Array items are stored contiguously.
❖Insertion and deletion operations involve tedious job of shifting the elements
with respect to the index of the array.

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 2

Introduction
• A linked list is a data structure which can change during execution.
• Successive elements are connected by pointers.
• Last element points to NULL.
• It can grow or shrink in size during execution of a program.
• It can be made just as long as required.
• It does not waste memory space.

head

A B C

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 3

Introduction
• Keeping track of a linked list:
• Must know the pointer to the first element of the list (called start, head, etc.).

• Linked lists provide flexibility in allowing the items to be rearranged

efficiently.
• Insert an element.
• Delete an element.

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 4

Illustration: Insertion

A B C

Item to be
tmp X inserted

A B C

curr
X

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 5

Illustration: Deletion
Item to be deleted
A B C

tmp
curr

A B C

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 6

Array versus Linked Lists
• Arrays are suitable for:
• Inserting/deleting an element at the end.
• Randomly accessing any element.
• Searching the list for a particular value.
• Linked lists are suitable for:
• Inserting an element.
• Deleting an element.
• Applications where sequential access is required.
• In situations where the number of elements cannot be predicted beforehand.

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 7

Types of Lists
• Depending on the way in which the links are used to maintain adjacency,
several different types of linked lists are possible.

• Linear singly-linked list (or simply linear list)

• One we have discussed so far.

head

A B C

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 8

• Circular linked list
• The pointer from the last element in the list points back to the first element.

head

A B C

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 9

• Doubly linked list
• Pointers exist between adjacent nodes in both directions.
• The list can be traversed either forward or backward.
.

head

A B C

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 10

Basic Operations on a List
• Creating a list
• Traversing the list
• Inserting an item in the list
• Deleting an item from the list
• Concatenating two lists into one

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 11

Implementing Linked Lists: Singly Linked List(SLL)
struct node
{
int data;
struct node *link;
}*head; //keep the head pointer as global or define in main and pass it to the functions

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 12

void create_list()
{
struct node *cur;
cur=head;
struct node *temp=(struct node *) malloc(sizeof(struct node));
printf("Enter the value:“);
scanf(“%d”, temp->data);
temp->link=NULL;
if(head==NULL)
{
head=temp;
}
else
{
while(cur->link!=NULL){
cur=cur->link;}
cur->link=temp;
}}
9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 13
void print()
{
struct node *h=head;
if(h==NULL)
printf("List is empty\n“);
while(h!=NULL)
{
printf(“%d->”,h->data);
h=h->link;
}
}

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 14

void ins_beg()
{
struct node *temp=(struct node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));
printf("Enter the value:“);
scanf(“%d”, temp->data);
temp->link=NULL;
if(head==NULL)
{
head=temp;
}
else
{
temp->link=head;
head=temp;
}
}9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 15
void ins_at_pos() if(head==NULL)
{ {
int pos; head=temp;
struct node *temp=(struct node }
*)malloc(sizeof(struct node)); else
struct node *t,*t1; {
printf("Enter the value to be inserted \n“); t=head;
scanf((“%d”,&temp->data); for(int i=1;i<pos-1;i++)
temp->link=NULL; t=t->link;
printf("Enter the position:\n“); t1=t->link;
scanf(“%d”,&pos); t->link=temp;
temp->link=t1;
}
}

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 16

void del_beg()
{
struct node *temp;
temp=head;
head=head->link;
printf("\nDeleted element is:%d“,temp->data);
free(temp);
}

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 17

void del_item() if(cur==head)
{ {
struct node *cur, *prev; head=head->link;
int item; printf("Data Deleted: %d“, item);
if(head==NULL) }
printf("No records to delete\n“); if(cur==NULL)
else {
{ printf("Record not found\n“);
printf("Enter the data to be deleted: “); return;
scanf(“%d”,&item); }
cur=head; else
while((cur!=NULL)&&(cur->data!=item)) {
{ prev->link=cur->link;
prev=cur; printf("Data deleted is:%d “, item);
cur=cur->link; }
} free(cur);
}
}

9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 18

int main()
{
while(1)
{
printf(“1. Create list 2.Insert Beginning \t 3. Insert at a position\t 4. Print\t 5. Delete Beg \t 6. Delete given a position \t 7. Exit\n“);
int ch;
scanf(“%d”, &ch);
switch(ch)
{
case 1: create_list();
break;
case 2: ins_beg(); break;
case 3: ins_pos();break;
case 4:.print(); break;
case 5: del_beg();break;
case 6: del_pos(); break;
case 7: exit(0);
}
}
return 0;
}
9-May-24 Dept. of I&CT 19