- A linked list is
a dynamically growing/shrinking
"data structure"
used to organize a collection of
identical objects
Note:
- The
"links"
are
formed using
references (i.e., addresses)
- Each linked list element contains:
- A data portion (the content is determined by the user)
- A reference (address/pointer) to the next list element
- A head (reference) variable contains the address (location) of the first element of the linked list
- The
"links"
are
formed using
references (i.e., addresses)
- Traversing a linked list:
- We can find the
first element of the
linked list through the
variable head
- We can find the second element of the linked list through the reference stored in the first list element
- We can find the
first element of the
linked list through the
variable head
- We will first look at the how to chain elements into a linked list ...
- Consider the
following simple linked list element
that contains an
integer value:
- The struct contains:
- An integer variable
- A reference variable to another linked list element
- Therefore, the linked list element
struct has the
folloing type definition:
struct ListElem { int value; // the integer value stored in the list struct ListElem *next; // points to the nextlist element }
- In general, a
linked list struct
type definition looks like this:
struct AnyListElem { variable definitions; // the "information payload" struct AnyListElem *next; // points to the nextlist element }
- Consider the head variable
of a linked list:
Observe that:
- The head variable contains the address of a struct ListElem variable (in fact, it is the address of the first element in ths list)
Therefore, the head variable has the following type definition:
struct ListElem *head; // The head variable of a linked list
- In general, the
head variable
of a linked list
is defined as follows:
struct AnyListElem *head; // General case....