Beginning Java Data Structures and Algorithms

Linked Lists Structure

A linked list is a list of data items where each item only knows about the next item in the list if there is one. Figure 2.5 shows one such example. Each box in the figure represents a container for a data item we need to store. This container, called a node, contains our data values and a pointer to the next node in the list. As the diagram shows, the node on the front of the list is called the head of the list and the last item of the list is called the tail.

Separate pointers to these nodes are stored for easy access of the data structure:

Figure 2.5: Linked list example

The advantage of using a linked list as opposed ...