Traversing in Linked List Data Structure | DSA Tutorials

Traversing a Linked List – We can traverse a linked list using the links of every node. As we know, the single-linked list is made up of a node where each node has two parts. One is the info part, and the other is the link part.

While traversing a linked list, we need to understand the two parts of a linked list. Info part of the linked list – The info part contains the actual data to be stored on the list. The linked part of the list – link is a reference to the next value of the list.

In a single linked list, we maintain a reference point to the first value of the linked list, and we name it the start variable. It’s the identity of the list, and with the help of a start variable, we can access the whole list following the links of each node. If a node contains no value or None. This means the linked list ended up there. in the above image. The linked part of the node that contains the value None is the last node of the list. And for an empty linked list, the start variable contains the value None.

Traversing a Linked List

Traversing means we can visit each node in a list at a single time. To traverse into a list, we need to know how we can move forward using the link of the list. Suppose we have a reference to the node, as we can see in Figure 3.

So we write

p = p.link

So this refers to the next node of the list, as you see in Figure 4.

Now, to traverse into the linked list, we need to refer to the first node of the list, as you see in Figure 5.

So we point the variable p to the first node of the list using the code.

self.start = None

Now, using this code, we can traverse the whole list.

def display_list(self):
    if self.start is None:
        print("List is empty")
        return    else:
        print("List is :   ")
        p = self.start
        while p is not None:
            print(p.info, " ", end=' ')
            p = p.link
        print()