Skip to main content

Find middle node of a linked list

How do you find the middle node of singly linked list of unspecified length, by traversing the list only once?

Solution:
  • Take two pointers p1 and p2.               
  • Let p1 and p2 point to head
    • p1=p2 = head;
  • Advance p1 by one node at a time and p2  by 2 nodes at a time
  •                           
    • p1 = p1->next;                          
    • p2 = p2 ->next->next;
                 
  • When p2 reaches NULL, p1 will be in the middle node.
Here is the code for the same


NODEPTR find_mid_node(NODEPTR head)
{
NODEPTR t1 ,t2;
t1 = t2 = head;
while(t2!=NULL && t2->next!=NULL)
{
t1 = t1->next;
t2 = t2->next->next;
}
return t1;//this is the midnode
}



    How do you reverse a singly linked list?

    I have written a recursive solution for reversing a list in this post . Let us discuss non-recursive solution now. 
    • Take two pointers p1 and p2 pointing to first and second nodes        
      • p1 = head;
      • p2 = p1->next;
      • p1->next=NULL;  
    • Now reverse their links
      • p2->next = p1;
    • But now the problem is, we have lost track of the third and subsequent nodes. So before reversing the links store third node in p3
    •                           
      • p1 = head;
      • p2 = p1->next;
      • p3 = p2->next;
      • p2->next = p1;                   
                   
    • Now continue the process of reversing the links for next set of three nodes
      • p1 = p2;
      • p2 = p3;
      • p3 = p3->next;
    • Repeat this process until p3 reaches NULL. At this point of time, p2 will be the last node 
      • head = p2;


    And here is the code for reversing a singly linked list.


    NODEPTR reverse_list_nr(NODEPTR head)
    {
    NODEPTR p1,p2,p3;
    p1 = head;
    p2 = p1->next;
    p3 = p2->next;
    p1->next = NULL;
    while(p3!=NULL)
    {
    p2->next = p1;
    p1 = p2;
    p2 = p3;
    p3 = p3->next;
    }
    p2->next = p1;
    return p2;
    }

    Comments

    Popular posts from this blog

    Program to delete a node from linked list

    How do you remove a node from a linked list? If you have to delete a node, first you need to search the node. Then you should find its previous node. Then you should link the previous node to the next node. If node containing 8 has to be deleted, then n1 should be pointing to n2. Looks quite simple. Isn't it? But there are at least two special cases you have to consider. Of course, when the node is not found. If the node is first node of the list viz head. If the node to be deleted is head node, then if you delete, the list would be lost. You should avoid that and make the second node as the head node. So it becomes mandatory that you return the changed head node from the function.   Now let us have a look at the code. #include<stdio.h> #include<stdlib.h> struct node { int data; struct node * next; }; typedef struct node * NODEPTR; NODEPTR create_node ( int value) { NODEPTR temp = (NODEPTR) malloc( size...

    Program to create a Linked List in C

    An array is a commonly used data structure in most of the languages. Because it is simple, it needs O(1) time for accessing elements. It is also compact. But an array has a serious drawback - it can not grow or shrink. You need to estimate the array size and define it during compile time. This drawback is not present a linked list. A linked list is a data structure which can grow or shrink dynamically.  A linked list has nodes each of which contain  contain  data and a link to next node . These nodes are dynamically allocated structures. If you need more nodes, you just need to allocate memory for these and link these nodes to the existing list. The nodes of a linked list have to be defined as self-referential structures in C. That is structures with data members and one member which is a pointer to the structure of same type.  This pointer will work as a link to next node. struct node { int data; struct node * next; //pointer to another node }...

    Function to add a node to binary search tree

    Binary search tree (BST) is an ordered tree where each node has smaller values on the left sub tree and larger values on the right subtree. This is similar to binary search algorithm. And another useful fact is if you traverse the node in in-order method, the values of the tree will be in ascending order. Binary Search Tree with root as 50 Now as you can see from the diagram on the left child and their children of root (which in this case is 50), values are 40, 20 and 45. All are less than 50. On the other hand, on the right sub tree 50, the values are 60, 55 and 78 - larger than 50. And this rule follows for each and every node, not just root. Now if we have to  add a node - let us 43, where shall we add it, in such a way that the tree will still remain as BST. The new node must be a leaf node (i.e. the node with no child nodes) Let us traverse from root and find out where this new node fits. 43 is smaller than 50. Hence we must branch to left of 50. Now we get 40. 4...