Linked Lists - Lists

From TRCCompSci - AQA Computer Science
Revision as of 11:29, 4 October 2018 by Admin (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Linked List

A linked list is a list where each value is aware of the data that comes before and after the value.

This is achieved by each node having a data value to store the data and a pointer value to point to the next item in the list.

To add an item into the linked list:

  • you can put the new data into a current space
  • find the value it needs to go after and copy the pointer value
  • set this pointer value so it points to the new item
  • set the pointer of the new value to the copied pointer value

Expanded Version

They have two lists, one contains the spaces within the list where a value can be placed the other contains the values with a pointer to the next.

To add to a linked list the new value must be placed in a space and assigned the pointer that the old value (or empty) was holding.

To stop a list finding a value while keeping it in the list, the pointer from the removed value can be moved to the value that used to point to the removed value.