Book Image

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

By : Dr. Basant Agarwal
Book Image

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

By: Dr. Basant Agarwal

Overview of this book

Choosing the right data structure is pivotal to optimizing the performance and scalability of applications. This new edition of Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python will expand your understanding of key structures, including stacks, queues, and lists, and also show you how to apply priority queues and heaps in applications. You’ll learn how to analyze and compare Python algorithms, and understand which algorithms should be used for a problem based on running time and computational complexity. You will also become confident organizing your code in a manageable, consistent, and scalable way, which will boost your productivity as a Python developer. By the end of this Python book, you’ll be able to manipulate the most important data structures and algorithms to more efficiently store, organize, and access data in your applications.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
14
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15
Index

Introducing linked lists

The linked list is an important and popular data structure with the following properties:

  1. The data elements are stored in memory in different locations that are connected through pointers. A pointer is an object that can store the memory address of a variable, and each data element points to the next data element and so on until the last element, which points to None.
  2. The length of the list can increase or decrease during the execution of the program.

Contrary to arrays, linked lists store data items sequentially in different locations in memory, wherein each data item is stored separately and linked to other data items using pointers. Each of these data items is called a node. More specifically, a node stores the actual data and a pointer. In Figure 4.2, nodes A and B store the data independently, and node A is connected to node B.

Figure 4.2: A linked list with two nodes

Moreover, the nodes can have links to other nodes...