write a data structure called a Linked List, which utilizes templates in order to store any type of data. In addition, the nature of a Linked List will give you some experience dealing with non-contiguous memory organization

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Project 1 – Templated Linked List

Overview

The purpose of this assignment is for you to write a data structure called a Linked List, which utilizes templates (similar to Java’s generics), in order to store any type of data. In addition, the nature of a Linked List will give you some experience dealing with non-contiguous memory organization. This will also give you more experience using pointers and memory management. Pointers, memory allocation, and understand how data is stored in memory will serve you well in a variety of situations, not just for an assignment like this.

Background

Remember Memory?

Variables, functions, pointers—everything takes up SOME space in memory. Sometimes that memory is occupied for only a short duration (a temporary variable in a function), sometimes that memory is allocated at the start of a program and hangs around for the lifetime of that program. Visualizing memory can be difficult sometimes, but very helpful. You may see diagrams of memory like this:

Or, you may see diagrams like these:

If you are trying to draw out some representation of memory to help you solve a problem, any of these (or some alternative that makes sense to you) will be fine.

Arrays

Arrays are stored in what is called contiguous memory. A contiguous memory block is one that is not interrupted by anything else (i.e. any other memory block). So if you created an array of 5 integers, each of those integers would be located one after the other in memory, with nothing else occupying memory between them. This is true for all arrays, of any data type.

All of the data in an application is not guaranteed to be contiguous, nor does it need to be. Arrays are typically the simplest and fastest way to store data, but they have a grand total of zero features. You allocate one contiguous block, but you can’t resize it, removing elements is a pain (and slow), etc.

Consider the previous array. What if you wanted to add another element to that block of memory? If

the surrounding memory is occupied, you can’t simply overwrite that with your new data element and expect good results.

In this scenario, in order to store one more element you would have to:

1. Create another array that was large enough to store all of the old elements plus the new one

2. Copy over all of the data elements one at a time (including the new element, at the end)

• Free up the old array—no point in having two copies of the data

This process has to be repeated each time you want to add to the array (either at the end, or insert in the middle), or remove anything from the array. It can be quite costly, in terms of performance, to delete/rebuild an entire array every time you want to make a single change. Cue the Linked List!

 

Linked List

The basic concept behind a Linked List is simple:

1. It’s a container that stores its elements in a non-contiguous fashion

2. Each element knows about the location of the element which comes after it (and possibly before, more on that later)

So instead of a contiguous array, where element 4 comes after element 3, which comes after element 2, etc… you might have something like this:

Each element in the Linked List (typically referred to as a “node”) stores some data, plus some sort of reference (a pointer, in C++) to whatever node should come next. The First node knows only about itself, and the Second node. The Second node knows only about itself, and the Third, etc. In this example the Fourth node has a null pointer as its “next” node, indicating that we’ve reached the end of the data.

A real-world example can be helpful as well:

Think about a line of people, with one person at the front of the line. That person might know about the person who is next in line, but no further than that (beyond him or herself, the person at the front

doesn’t need to know or care). The second person in line might know about the third person in line, but no further. Continuing on this way, the last person in line knows that there is no one else that follows, so that must be the end.

So… What are the advantages of storing data like this? When inserting or removing elements into an array, the entire array has to be reallocated. With a Linked List, only a small number of elements are affected. Only elements surrounding the changed element need to be updated, and all other elements can remain unaffected. This makes the Linked List much more efficient when it comes to adding or removing elements.

Now, imagine one person wants to step out of line. If this were an array, all of the data would have to be reconstructed elsewhere. In a Linked List, only three nodes are affected: 1) The person leaving, 2) the person in front of that person, and 3) the person behind that person.

Imagine you are the person at the front of the line. You don’t really need to know or care what happens 10 people behind you, as that has no impact on you whatsoever.

If the 5^th person in line leaves, the only parts of the line that should be impacted are the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th spaces.

1. Person 4 has a new “next” Person: whomever was behind the person behind them (Person 6).
2. Person 5 has to be removed from the
3. Person 6… actually does nothing. In this example, a Person only cares about whomever comes after them. Since Person 5 was before Person 6, Person 6 is unaffected. (A Linked List could be implemented with two-way information between nodes—more on that later).

The same thought-process can be applied if someone stepped into line (maybe a friend was holding their place):

In this case, Person 2 would change their “next” person from Person 3, to the new Person being added. New Guy would have his “next” pointer set to whomever Person 2 was previously keeping track of, Person 3. Because of the ordering process, Person 3 would remain unchanged, as would anyone else in the list (aside from being a bit irritated at the New Guy for cutting in line).

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