Chapter 17 Linked Lists.ppt

Chapter 17 Linked Lists 17.1 Introduction to the Linked List ADT A linked list is a series of connected nodes, where each node is a data structure. A linked list can grow or shrink in size as the program runs Advantages of Linked Lists over Arrays and vectors A linked list can easily grow or shrink in size. Insertion and deletion of nodes is quicker with linked lists than with vectors. The composition of a Linked List Each node in a linked list contains one or more members that represent data. In addition to the data, each node contains a pointer, which can point to another node. The composition of a Linked List A linked list is called linked because each node in the series has a pointer that points to the next node in the list. Declarations First you must declare a data structure that will be used for the nodes. For example, the following struct could be used to create a list where each node holds a float: Declarations The next step is to declare a pointer to serve as the list head, as shown below. 17.2 Linked List Operations We will use the following class declaration (on the next slide), which is stored in FloatList.h. Appending a Node to the List To append a node to a linked list means to add the node to the end of the list. The pseudocode is shown below. The C++ code follows. Program 17-1 Stepping Through the Program The head pointer is declared as a global variable. head is automatically initialized to 0 (NULL), which indicates that the list is empty. ?The first call to appendNode passes 2.5 as the argument. In the following statements, a new node is allocated in memory, 2.5 is copied into its value member, and NULL is assigned to the nodes next pointer. Traversing the List The displayList member function traverses the list, displaying the value member of each node. The following pseudocode represents the algorithm. The C++ code for the member function follows on the next slide. Program 17-2 Program 17-2 Output Inserting a Node Using the listNode