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Introduction to Linked List

Introduction to Linked List -

  • A linked list is a linear data structure, in which the elements are not stored at contiguous memory locations. linked list data structure introduction
  • Requires extra memory to store data and pointer(address) to the next element.
    struct Node {
        int data;
        Node* next;
    }head;
    
    // Total memory allocation = 4 bytes + next pointer size
                               = 4 bytes + 8 bytes (on 64-bit machines)
                               = 12 bytes
    
  • Starting node is known as head of the list and the last node always points to the null if it’s a singly/doubly linked list. linked list head/tail structure
  • It is dynamic in nature which allocates the memory when required. memory allocation
  • No element can be accessed randomly; it has to access each node sequentially.
  • Reverse Traversing is difficult in the linked list.
  • The memory is wasted as pointers require extra memory for storage.
  • Linked lists are used to implement stacks, queues, graphs, etc.
  • Linked lists let you insert elements at the beginning, middle, and end of the list.
  • In Linked Lists, we don’t need to know the size in advance.
Type of Linked List:
  • Singly Linked List: Items can be traversed forward only. singly linked list
  • Doubly Linked List: Items can be traversed forward and backward. doubly linked list
  • Circular Linked List: The last item contains a link of the first element as next and the first element has a link to the last element as previous. circular linked list
Basic Operations:

Following are the basic operations supported by a linked list.

insertion − Adds an element at the beginning/end/middle of the list.

display − Displays the complete linked list.

search − Searches an element using the given key.

delete − Deletes an element using the given key.

Now in the next blog, I will be witting about the singly linked list with python code. Stay tuned!.

Happy Learning.