DOUBLY LINKED LIST

DOUBLY LINKED LIST

Doubly linked list is a complex type of linked list in which a node contains a
pointer to the previous as well as the next node in the sequence. Therefore, in a
doubly linked list, a node consists of three parts: node data, pointer to the next
node in sequence (next pointer) , pointer to the previous node (previous pointer).
A sample node in a doubly linked list is shown in the figure.

Applications of Doubly Linked List:

 It is used by web browsers for backward and forward navigation of web

pages
 LRU (Least Recently Used) / MRU (Most Recently Used) Cache are
constructed using Doubly Linked Lists.
 Used by various applications to maintain undo and redo functionalities.
 In Operating Systems, a doubly linked list is maintained by thread scheduler
to keep track of processes that are being executed at that time.
Memory Representation of Doubly Linked List

1. Each node in a doubly-linked list consists of 3 parts- two-pointers and a node.

2. Due to two-pointers additional to data values, a doubly-linked list takes a lot

of space as compared to other data structures.

3. The following image shows the memory representation of a linked list.

4. Here, -1 represents NULL.

5. The Prev of the first node i.e. A and the Next of the last node i.e. D point
towards NULL.

6. This memory representation shows that the values need not be stored
contiguously.

7. The values 1000, 1056, 2004 and so on represent addresses in the memory.

8. We traverse the list until we find -1 in the Next of a node.

Operations on Double Linked List
In a double linked list, we perform the following operations...

1. Insertion
2. Deletion
3. Display

Insertion
In a double linked list, the insertion operation can be performed in three ways as
follows...

1. Inserting At Beginning of the list

2. Inserting At End of the list
3. Inserting At Specific location in the list

Inserting at Beginning of the list

We can use the following steps to insert a new node at beginning of the double
linked list...

 Step 1 - Create a newNode with given value and newNode →

previous as NULL.
 Step 2 - Check whether list is Empty (head == NULL)
 Step 3 - If it is Empty then, assign NULL to newNode →
next and newNode to head.
 Step 4 - If it is not Empty then, assign head to newNode →
next and newNode to head.
Inserting At End of the list

We can use the following steps to insert a new node at end of the double linked
list...

 Step 1 - Create a newNode with given value and newNode →

next as NULL.
 Step 2 - Check whether list is Empty (head == NULL)
 Step 3 - If it is Empty, then assign NULL to newNode →
previous and newNode to head.
 Step 4 - If it is not Empty, then, define a node pointer temp and initialize
with head.
 Step 5 - Keep moving the temp to its next node until it reaches to the last
node in the list (until temp → next is equal to NULL).
 Step 6 - Assign newNode to temp → next and temp to newNode →
previous.

Inserting At Specific location in the list (After a Node)

We can use the following steps to insert a new node after a node in the double
linked list...

 Step 1 - Create a newNode with given value.

 Step 2 - Check whether list is Empty (head == NULL)
  Step 3 - If it is Empty then, assign NULL to both newNode →
previous & newNode → next and set newNode to head.
 Step 4 - If it is not Empty then, define two node
pointers temp1 & temp2 and initialize temp1 with head.
 Step 5 - Keep moving the temp1 to its next node until it reaches to the
node after which we want to insert the newNode (until temp1 → data is
equal to location, here location is the node value after which we want to
insert the newNode).
 Step 6 - Every time check whether temp1 is reached to the last node. If it
is reached to the last node then display 'Given node is not found in the
list!!! Insertion not possible!!!' and terminate the function. Otherwise
move the temp1 to next node.
 Step 7 - Assign temp1 → next to temp2, newNode to temp1 →
next, temp1 to newNode → previous, temp2 to newNode →
next and newNode to temp2 → previous.

Deletion

In a double linked list, the deletion operation can be performed in three ways as
follows...

1. Deleting from Beginning of the list

2. Deleting from End of the list
3. Deleting a Specific Node
Deleting from Beginning of the list

We can use the following steps to delete a node from beginning of the double
linked list...

 Step 1 - Check whether list is Empty (head == NULL)

 Step 2 - If it is Empty then, display 'List is Empty!!! Deletion is not
possible' and terminate the function.
 Step 3 - If it is not Empty then, define a Node pointer 'temp' and initialize
with head.
 Step 4 - Check whether list is having only one node (temp → previous is
equal to temp → next)
 Step 5 - If it is TRUE, then set head to NULL and
delete temp (Setting Empty list conditions)
 Step 6 - If it is FALSE, then assign temp → next to head, NULL to head
→ previous and delete temp.

Deleting from End of the list

We can use the following steps to delete a node from end of the double linked
list...

 Step 1 - Check whether list is Empty (head == NULL)

 Step 2 - If it is Empty, then display 'List is Empty!!! Deletion is not
possible' and terminate the function.
  Step 3 - If it is not Empty then, define a Node pointer 'temp' and initialize
with head.
 Step 4 - Check whether list has only one Node (temp →
previous and temp → next both are NULL)
 Step 5 - If it is TRUE, then assign NULL to head and delete temp. And
terminate from the function. (Setting Empty list condition)
 Step 6 - If it is FALSE, then keep moving temp until it reaches to the last
node in the list. (until temp → next is equal to NULL)
 Step 7 - Assign NULL to temp → previous → next and delete temp.

Deleting a Specific Node from the list

We can use the following steps to delete a specific node from the double linked
list...

 Step 1 - Check whether list is Empty (head == NULL)

 Step 2 - If it is Empty then, display 'List is Empty!!! Deletion is not
possible' and terminate the function.
 Step 3 - If it is not Empty, then define a Node pointer 'temp' and initialize
with head.
 Step 4 - Keep moving the temp until it reaches to the exact node to be
deleted or to the last node.
 Step 5 - If it is reached to the last node, then display 'Given node not
found in the list! Deletion not possible!!!' and terminate the fuction.
 Step 6 - If it is reached to the exact node which we want to delete, then
check whether list is having only one node or not
 Step 7 - If list has only one node and that is the node which is to be deleted
then set head to NULL and delete temp (free(temp)).
 Step 8 - If list contains multiple nodes, then check whether temp is the first
node in the list (temp == head).
 Step 9 - If temp is the first node, then move the head to the next node
(head = head → next), set head of previous to NULL (head → previous
= NULL) and delete temp.
 Step 10 - If temp is not the first node, then check whether it is the last node
in the list (temp → next == NULL).
 Step 11 - If temp is the last node then
set temp of previous of next to NULL (temp → previous → next =
NULL) and delete temp (free(temp)).
 Step 12 - If temp is not the first node and not the last node, then
set temp of previous of next to temp of next (temp → previous → next
= temp → next), temp of next of previous to temp of previous (temp
→ next → previous = temp → previous) and delete temp (free(temp)).
Advantages of Doubly Linked List over the singly linked list:
 A DLL can be traversed in both forward and backward directions.
 The delete operation in DLL is more efficient if a pointer to the node to be
deleted is given.
 We can quickly insert a new node before a given node.
 In a singly linked list, to delete a node, a pointer to the previous node is
needed. To get this previous node, sometimes the list is traversed. In DLL,
we can get the previous node using the previous pointer.

Disadvantages of Doubly Linked List over the singly linked list:

 Every node of DLL Requires extra space for a previous pointer. It is possible
to implement DLL with a single pointer though (See this and this).
 All operations require an extra pointer previous to be maintained. For
example, in insertion, we need to modify previous pointers together with the
next pointers. For example in the following functions for insertions at
different positions, we need 1 or 2 extra steps to set the previous pointer.