Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python - Second Edition

Nodes

At the heart of lists (and several other data structures) is the concept of a node. Before we go any further, let us consider this idea for a while.

To begin with, let us consider an example. We shall create a few strings:

>>> a = "eggs">>> b = "ham">>> c = "spam"

Now you have three variables, each with a unique name, a type, and a value. At the moment, there is no way to show the relationships between these variables. Nodes allow us to show how these variables relate to each other. A node is a container of data, together with one or more links to other nodes. A link is a pointer.

A simple type of node is one that has only a link to the next node. As we know about the pointers, the string is not actually stored in the node, but rather ...