Arrays and Linked Lists

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 Outline

Types of Data Structure

Abstract Data Type
Array
Linked Lists
Singly linked lists
Doubly linked lists
Circular linked lists

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 Types of Data Structure

 Linear: In Linear data structure, values are arranged in

linear fashion.

 Array: Fixed-size

 Linked-list: Variable-size

 Stack: Add to top and remove from top

 Queue: Add to back and remove from front

 Priority queue: Add anywhere, remove the highest

priority

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 Types of Data Structure
 Non-Linear: The data values in this structure are not
arranged in order.
 Hash tables: Unordered lists which use a ‘hash function’ to insert and

search

 Tree: Data is organized in branches.

 Graph: A more general branching structure, with less strict connection

conditions than for a tree

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 Type of Data Structures
 Homogeneous: In this type of data structures, values
of the same types of data are stored.

 Array

 Heterogeneous: In this type of data structures, data

values of different types are grouped and stored.

 Structures

 Classes

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 Abstract Data Type and Data Structure
 Definition:-
 Abstract Data Types (ADTs) stores data and allow various
operations on the data to access and change it.
 A mathematical model, together with various operations defined
on the model
 An ADT is a collection of data and associated operations for
manipulating that data
 Data Structures
 Physical implementation of an ADT
 data structures used in implementations are provided in a
language (primitive or built-in) or are built from the language
constructs (user-defined)
 Each operation associated with the ADT is implemented by one
or more subroutines in the implementation
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 Abstract Data Type
 ADTs support abstraction, encapsulation, and
information hiding.

 Abstraction is the structuring of a problem into

well-defined entities by defining their data and
operations.

 The principle of hiding the used data structure and

to only provide a well-defined interface is known as
encapsulation.
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 The Core Operations of ADT

Every Collection ADT should

provide a way to:
add an item
remove an item
find, retrieve, or access an item

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Is there a data structure that works well for
all purpose?

• No single data structure works well for

all purposes

• So it is important to know the strengths

and limitations of several of them

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 Array

Memory
a b c d

start
 Storing data in a sequential memory locations
 Access each element using integer index
 Very basic, popular, and simple
 int a[10]; int *a = new int(10);
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 Array
 Array representation: You can access each value in constant
time through its index.

 Arrays are a contiguous collection of elements that can be

accessed randomly using an index.

 This access by index operation takes O(1) time.

 Insertions on an array have different times complexities.

 O(1): constant time (on average) to append a value at the

end of the array.

 O(n): linear time to insert a value at the beginning or

middle.
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 Array: Problems
 New insertion and deletion: difficult

 Need to shift to make space for insertion

 Need to fill empty positions after deletion

 Why don’t we connect all elements just “logically”

not “physically”?

 Linked List
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 Linked List
 A List (or Linked List) is a linear data structure where each
object has a pointer to the next one creating a chain. You can
also have a back reference to the previous node.

 The data doesn’t have to be a number. It can be anything that

you need (e.g., char, string, images, songs, menu items).

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 Types of Linked List
1. Singly linked lists.
2. Doubly linked lists.
3. Circular linked lists.
4. Circular doubly linked lists.

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 Singly Linked List
 A singly linked list is a concrete data structure
consisting of a sequence of nodes
node
 Each node stores
 element
next
 link to the next node
element
 A singly linked list is a unidirectional linked list.
 Traversal is possible only in one direction, i.e., from head node
to tail node.

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 Singly Linked List of Strings: Picture

StringLinkedList
*head

StringNode StringNode StringNode StringNode StringNode

next next next next NULL

“Raman” “Soman” “David” “Akbarr” “John”

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 Inserting at the Head node

Questions?
1. Allocate a new node
2. Insert a new element
3. Have the new node point to the old head
4. Update head to point to new node 17/32
 Inserting at the Head node

Inserting node after a given node

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 Removing at the Head

Questions?

1. Update head to point to next node in the list

2. Allow garbage collector to reclaim the former first node
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Inserting at the Tail and Removing at the
Tail
1. Allocate a new node
2. Insert new element Insertion at the tail
3. Have new node point to null
4. Have old last node point to new node
5. Update tail to point to new node
1. …
Removal at the tail
2. ...

3. …

4. …
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Inserting node at the Tail node

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 Doubly Linked List
 A doubly linked list is a bi-directional linked list.

 Traversal is possible in both the directions.

 Has two pointers, next and previous.

 next pointer points to successor node, previous pointer points

to the predecessor node.

previous next

element node
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 Doubly Linked List

header nodes trailer

elements

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 Circular Linked List
 In Circular, singly linked list, Pointer in the last node
points back to the first node
 Rather than having a head or a tail, it forms a cycle
 Cursor
 A virtual starting node
 This can be varying as we perform operations

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 Circular Linked List
 A circular Linked list is a unidirectional linked list.

 Traversal possible only in one direction.

 While traversing, you need to be careful and stop traversing

when you revisit the head node.

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 Circular Doubly Linked List
 It is a mixture of a doubly linked list and a circular linked list

 Like the doubly linked list, it has previous pointer

 Like the circular linked list, its last node points at the head
node.

 It is a bi-directional list. So, traversal is possible in both

directions.

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Circular Doubly Linked List

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 Applications of linked list
Applications of linked list in computer science:
1. Implementation of stacks and queues
2. Implementation of graphs: Adjacency list representation of
graphs is the most popular which uses a linked list to store
adjacent vertices.
3. Dynamic memory allocation: Uses a linked list of free blocks.
4. Maintaining a directory of names.
5. Performing arithmetic operations on long integers.
6. Manipulation of polynomials by storing constants in the node
of the linked list.
7. Representing sparse matrices.

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 Applications of linked list
Applications of linked list in the real world:

1. Image viewer – Previous and next images are linked and can
be accessed by the next and previous buttons.

2. Previous and next page in a web browser – We can access the

previous and next URL searched in a web browser by
pressing the back and next buttons since they are linked as a
linked list.

3. Music Player – Songs in the music player are linked to the

previous and next songs. So you can play songs either from
starting or ending of the list.
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 Applications of linked list
Applications of Circular Linked Lists:

 Useful for implementation of a queue. There is no need to

maintain two-pointers for the front and rear if we use a
circular linked list. Maintain a pointer to the last inserted
node and the front can always be obtained as next of last.

 Circular Doubly Linked Lists are used for the implementation

of advanced data structures like the Fibonacci Heap.

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 Applications of linked list
Applications of Circular Linked Lists :

 Circular lists are useful in applications to go around the list

repeatedly. For example, when multiple applications are
running on a PC, it is common for the operating system to put
the running applications on a list and then cycle through them,
giving each of them a slice of time to execute, and then making
them wait while the CPU is given to another application. It is
convenient for the operating system to use a circular list so
that when it reaches the end of the list it can cycle around to
the front of the list.
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 Applications of linked list
Application of Doubly Linked Lists:

 Redo and Undo functionality.

 Use of the Back and forward button in a browser.

 The most recently used section is represented by the Doubly

Linked list.

 Other Data structures like Stack, HashTable, and BinaryTree can

also be applied by Doubly Linked List.

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