Introduction to Linked Lists
- A linked list is a linear data structure and it is a very common data structure that consists of a group of nodes in a sequence that is divided into two parts.
- Each node consists of its own data and the address of the next node and forms a chain. Linked Lists are used to create trees and graphs.
Advantages of Linked Lists
- They are dynamic in nature which allocates the memory when required.
- Insertion and deletion operations can be easily implemented.
- Stacks and queues can be easily executed.
- Linked List reduces the access time.
Disadvantages of Linked Lists
- The memory is wasted as pointers require extra memory for storage.
- No element can be accessed randomly; it has to access each node sequentially.
- Reverse Traversing is difficult in the linked list.
Applications of Linked Lists
- Linked lists are used to implement stacks, queues, graphs, etc.
- Linked lists let you insert elements at the beginning and end of the list.
- In Linked Lists, we don’t need to know the size in advance.
Types of Linked Lists
- Singly Linked List :
- Singly-linked lists contain nodes that have a data part as well as an address part i.e. next, which points to the next node in the sequence of nodes. The operations we can perform on singly-linked lists are insertion, deletion, and traversal.
Doubly Linked List :
- In a doubly-linked list, each node contains two links the first link points to the previous node, and the next link points to the next node in the sequence.
Circular Linked List :
- In the circular linked list, the last node of the list contains the address of the first node and forms a circular chain.
