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Doubly Linked List

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In computer science, a doubly linked list is a linked data structure that consists of a set of sequentially linked records called nodes. Each node contains two fields, called links, that are references to the previous and to the next node in the sequence of nodes. The beginning and ending nodes' previous and next links, respectively, point to some kind of terminator, typically a sentinel node or null, to facilitate the traversal of the list. If there is only one sentinel node, then the list is circularly linked via the sentinel node. It can be conceptualized as two singly linked lists formed from the same data items, but in opposite sequential orders.

Doubly Linked List

The two node links allow traversal of the list in either direction. While adding or removing a node in a doubly linked list requires changing more links than the same operations on a singly linked list, the operations are simpler and potentially more efficient (for nodes other than first nodes) because there is no need to keep track of the previous node during traversal or no need to traverse the list to find the previous node, so that its link can be modified.

Pseudocode for Basic Operations

Insert

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 n.previous ← tail tail.next ← n tail ← n end if end Add

Delete

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 if value = head.value if head = tail head ← ø tail ← ø else head ← head.next head.previous ← ø end if return true end if n ← head.next while n != ø and value !== n.value n ← n.next end while if n = tail tail ← tail.previous tail.next ← ø return true else if n != ø n.previous.next ← n.next n.next.previous ← n.previous return true end if return false end Remove

Reverse Traversal

ReverseTraversal(tail) Pre: tail is the node of the list to traverse Post: the list has been traversed in reverse order n ← tail while n != ø yield n.value n ← n.previous end while end Reverse Traversal

Complexities

Time Complexity

AccessSearchInsertionDeletion
O(n)O(n)O(1)O(n)

Space Complexity

O(n)

References

  • Wikipedia
  • YouTube