C Language

C Intro

C Overview

C Tokens

C Constants

C Data types

C Operators

C Expressions

C I/O Operations

C Decision - Branching

C Decision - Looping

C Arrays

C String

C Functions

C Structure

C DMA

C Linked lists

C File Management

C Linked List

Contents

• Linked Lists
• Structure
• Advantages of Linked List
• Types of linked list
• Applications of linked lists.

Linked Lists - definition

A linked list is called so because each of items in the list is a part of a structure, which is linked to the structure containing the next item. This type of list is called a linked list since it can be considered as a list whose order is given by links from one item to the next.

Structure

struct linked_list 
{ 
    float age; 
	struct linked_list *next; 
} struct Linked_list node1,node2; 
        

Structure definition

Each item has a node consisting two fields one containing the variable and another consisting of address of the next item (i.e., pointer to the next item) in the list.
A linked list is therefore a collection of structures ordered by logical links that are stored as the part of data. Item .
The next pointer of node1 can be made to point to the node 2 by the same statement.

node1.next=&node2;
        

This statement stores the address of node 2 into the field node1.next and this establishes a link between node1 and node2 similarly we can combine the process to create a special pointer value called null that can be stored in the next field of the last node

Advantages of Linked List

A linked list is a dynamic data structure and therefore the size of the linked list can grow or shrink in size during execution of the program.
A linked list does not require any extra space therefore it does not waste extra memory.
It provides flexibility in rearranging the items efficiently. The limitation of linked list is that it consumes extra space when compared to a array since each node must also contain the address of the next item in the list to search for a single item in a linked list is cumbersome and time consuming.