Deleting a Node from a Singly Linked List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

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Deletion of a Node from a Singly Linked List
Similar to insertion we have three cases for deleting a Node from a Singly Linked List.

• Deleting First Node in Singly Linked List
  
  To complete deletion of firstNode in the list we have to change Head pointing to Next of firstNode.
  
  Pseudocode:

  firstNode = Head
  
  Head = firstNode->Next
  
  free firstNode

  Complexity:
  Time Complexity: O(1)
  Space Complexity: O(1)

Detecting First Node in a Loop in the List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise and Hare.
Next Article: Finding Nth node from end of a Singly Linked List.

Once we confirm that there is a Loop in a Singly Linked List we will see how to determine first node of the loop.

Finding Nth node from end of a Singly Linked List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Finding first node in a Loop in Singly Linked List.

Figure 1: Singly Linked List

Solution 01 - Brute Force Approach:

1. Start at First Node of the List (call it curNodePtr).
2. Assign curNodePtr to tmpPtr and count number of nodes after the curNodePtr.
3. If number of nodes after curNodePtr are equal to N nodes or tmpPtr reaches END then break. If tmPtr reaches END but count not equal to N then return since we can't find the Nth node from the end of the Singly Linked List.
4. Move the curNodePtr one step forward in the Linked List i.e curNodePtr now points to its next node in the list and start again from STEP-2.

Reversing a Singly Linked List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Deleting a Node from a Singly Linked List.
Next Article: Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise and Hare.

Let us see how to reverse a Singly Linked List.

Figure-1: Singly Linked List

Pseudocode:

cur_ptr = HEAD->NEXT
prev_ptr = NULL

forever:

   if cur_ptr == NULL
   break

   tmp_ptr  = prev_ptr
   prev_ptr = cur_ptr
   cur_ptr  = cur_ptr->NEXT
   
   prev_ptr->NEXT = tmp_ptr

HEAD->NEXT = prev_ptr

Complexity:
Time Complexity: O(n)
Space Complexity: O(3)

If we try on the example in Figure-1 we get the output as shown below

Figure-2: After reversing the Singly Linked List

Previous Article: Deleting a Node from a Singly Linked List.
Next Article: Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise and Hare.

Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise & Hare

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Reversing a Singly Linked List.
Next Article: Finding first node in a Loop in Singly Linked List.

Eventhough there are multiple algorithms available we start with

Floyd's Cycle-Finding Algorithm
In simple terms it is also known as "Tortoise and Hare Algorithm" or "Floyd's Cycle Detection Algorithm" named after its inventor Robert Floyd. It is one of the simple cycle detection algorithm. It's a simple pointers based approach.

Robert Floyd