Linked List Introduction
Lets learn about Linked List Data Structure…
In this article I’m going to share with you basics knowledge about Linked List Data Structure. So, to our study purpose I’m going to divide this into sub areas.
- What is the Linked List Data Structure?
Linked List is a linear data structure. It consists of series of nodes. Each node has two parts. Data and next pointer (link). This data structure is not stored at a contiguous location. That means, this data structure consists of series of nodes, they are not store one after other like arrays. In arrays we know it has a contiguous block of memory location to store elements. But linked list data structure nodes store at a different memory locations but link each other.
2. What are the basic things in the Linked List?
Node — Linked List consists of a series of nodes. A, B, C are nodes. you can add any no of nodes as you want.
Head — Head is a reference. That is not a node. That holds the memory address of the first node.
Data — This is one of a part of the node. Which stores information.
Next — This is the other part of the node. which points to the other node.
3. What are the importance of Linked Lists?
Dynamic Data Structure — This means these type of data structures can change the size at runtime. This means you can add or remove elements form the list as needed, and the memory will grow or shrink accordingly.
Easy to insert and delete data.
Efficient memory utilization.
So, lets see what are the types of linked lists
- Singular linked list
2. Doubly linked list
3. Circular linked list
Each type of list has a its own implementation and have some different operations.
So, Through this article, I tried to give a entry point to learn about this data structure. This is the first article of linked list series. Others also will be publish soon… Good luck!
