# Linked List _Read this in other languages:_ [_简体中文_](README.zh-CN.md), [_Русский_](README.ru-RU.md), [_日本語_](README.ja-JP.md), [_Português_](README.pt-BR.md), [_한국어_](README.ko-KR.md), [_Español_](README.es-ES.md), [_Türkçe_](README.tr-TR.md), [_Українська_](README.uk-UA.md) In computer science, a **linked list** is a linear collection of data elements, in which linear order is not given by their physical placement in memory. Instead, each element points to the next. It is a data structure consisting of a group of nodes which together represent a sequence. Under the simplest form, each node is composed of data and a reference (in other words, a link) to the next node in the sequence. This structure allows for efficient insertion or removal of elements from any position in the sequence during iteration. More complex variants add additional links, allowing efficient insertion or removal from arbitrary element references. A drawback of linked lists is that access time is linear (and difficult to pipeline). Faster access, such as random access, is not feasible. Arrays have better cache locality as compared to linked lists. ![Linked List](./images/linked-list.jpeg) *Made with [okso.app](https://okso.app)* ## Pseudocode for Basic Operations ### Insert ```text Add(value) Pre: value is the value to add to the list Post: value has been placed at the tail of the list n ← node(value) if head = ø head ← n tail ← n else tail.next ← n tail ← n end if end Add ``` ```text Prepend(value) Pre: value is the value to add to the list Post: value has been placed at the head of the list n ← node(value) n.next ← head head ← n if tail = ø tail ← n end end Prepend ``` ### Search ```text Contains(head, value) Pre: head is the head node in the list value is the value to search for Post: the item is either in the linked list, true; otherwise false n ← head while n != ø and n.value != value n ← n.next end while if n = ø return false end if return true end Contains ``` ### Delete ```text Remove(head, value) Pre: head is the head node in the list value is the value to remove from the list Post: value is removed from the list, true, otherwise false if head = ø return false end if n ← head if n.value = value if head = tail head ← ø tail ← ø else head ← head.next end if return true end if while n.next != ø and n.next.value != value n ← n.next end while if n.next != ø if n.next = tail tail ← n tail.next = null else n.next ← n.next.next end if return true end if return false end Remove ``` ### Traverse ```text Traverse(head) Pre: head is the head node in the list Post: the items in the list have been traversed n ← head while n != ø yield n.value n ← n.next end while end Traverse ``` ### Traverse in Reverse ```text ReverseTraversal(head, tail) Pre: head and tail belong to the same list Post: the items in the list have been traversed in reverse order if tail != ø curr ← tail while curr != head prev ← head while prev.next != curr prev ← prev.next end while yield curr.value curr ← prev end while yield curr.value end if end ReverseTraversal ``` ## Complexities ### Time Complexity | Access | Search | Insertion | Deletion | | :-------: | :-------: | :-------: | :-------: | | O(n) | O(n) | O(1) | O(n) | ### Space Complexity O(n) ## References - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_list) - [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njTh_OwMljA&index=2&t=1s&list=PLLXdhg_r2hKA7DPDsunoDZ-Z769jWn4R8)