Lecture 3

Linked List

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Linked List
 A linked list is a linear data structure, in which
the elements are not stored at continuous
memory locations. The elements in a linked list
are linked using pointers as shown in the below
image:

 In simple words, a linked list consists of nodes

where each node contains a data field and a
reference(link) to the next node in the list
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List Using Linked Memory
 Various cells of memory are not allocated
consecutively in memory.

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List Using Linked Memory
 Various cells of memory are not allocated
consecutively in memory.
 Not only to store the elements of the list.

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List Using Linked Memory
 Various cells of memory are not allocated
consecutively in memory.
 Not enough to store the elements of the list.
 With arrays, the second element was right next
to the first element.

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List Using Linked Memory
 Various cells of memory are not allocated
consecutively in memory.
 Not enough to store the elements of the list.
 With arrays, the second element was right next
to the first element.
 Now the first element must explicitly tell us
where to look for the second element.

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List Using Linked Memory
 Various cells of memory are not allocated
consecutively in memory.
 Not enough to store the elements of the list.
 With arrays, the second element was right next
to the first element.
 Now the first element must explicitly tell us
where to look for the second element.
 Do this by holding the memory address of the
second element

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Linked List
 Create a structure called a Node.

object next

 The object field will hold the actual list element.

 The next field in the structure will hold the
starting location of the next node.
 Chain the nodes together to form a linked list.

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Linked List
 Picture of our list (2, 6, 7, 8, 1) stored as a
linked list:

head

2 6 8 7 1 size=5

current

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Linked List
Note some features of the list:
 Need a head to point to the first node of the list.
Otherwise we won’t know where the start of the
list is.

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Linked List
Note some features of the list:
 Need a head to point to the first node of the list.
Otherwise we won’t know where the start of the
list is.
 The current here is a pointer, not an index.

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Linked List
Note some features of the list:
 Need a head to point to the first node of the list.
Otherwise we won’t know where the start of the
list is.
 The current here is a pointer, not an index.
 The next field in the last node points to nothing.
We will place the memory address NULL which
is guaranteed to be inaccessible.

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Linked List
 Actual picture in memory:
1051 6
1052 1063
current 1053 1063
1054 2
head 1055 1051
1056
2 6 8 7 1 1057 7
1058 1060
current 1059
1060 1
1061 0
head 1062 1054
1063 8
1064 1057
1065
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Linked List Operations
 add(9): Create a new node in memory to hold ‘9’
Node* newNode = new Node(9); newNode 9

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Linked List Operations
 add(9): Create a new node in memory to hold ‘9’
Node* newNode = new Node(9); newNode 9

 Link the new node into the list

head

2 6 8 7 1 size=5 6

current 2 1
3
9

newNode

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C++ Code for Linked List

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Building a Linked List
List list; headNode size=0

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Building a Linked List
List list; headNode size=0

currentNode

list.add(2); headNode 2 size=1

lastcurrentNode

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Building a Linked List
List list; headNode size=0

currentNode

list.add(2); headNode 2 size=1

lastcurrentNode

currentNode

list.add(6); headNode 2 6 size=2

lastcurrentNode

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Building a Linked List

list.add(8); list.add(7); list.add(1);

currentNode

headNode 2 6 8 7 1 size=5

lastcurrentNode

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C++ Code for Linked List

int get() {
if (currentNode != NULL)
return currentNode->get();
};

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Analysis of Linked List
 add
• we simply insert the new node after the current
node. So add is a one-step operation.

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Analysis of Linked List
 add
• we simply insert the new node after the current
node. So add is a one-step operation.
 remove
 remove is n step operation, as we need to traverse
the list from the start to keep the track of Last
current node.
 Or save the pointer of current node and last current
node then it would be one step operation.

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Analysis of Linked List
 add
• we simply insert the new node after the current node.
So add is a one-step operation.
 remove
 remove is n step operation, as we need to traverse the
list from the start to keep the track of Last current
node.
 Or save the pointer of current node and last current
node then it would be one step operation.
 find
 worst-case: may have to search the entire list

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