In this post, we are going to be talking about the linked list data structure in the language of "thank u, next" by Ariana Grande. If you haven't w...
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Maybe Pete reads dev.to
Everybody's getting into the spirit
That's a good introduction to linked lists.
Still I believe that linked lists are one of the most overrated data structures and that in practice there are very few use cases where they really perform better than dynamic arrays.
The main reason is that modern hardware has very efficient caches and that caching doesn't really work for linked lists.
True, but caches are extremely good at moving blocks of memory around.
For a long time I believed myself that linked lists have huge advantages when inserting or deleting items and that this makes up for their difficult handling. But after doing some performance testing I did not find any practical case where they actually make sense.
At least I found that to be the case for C++ and Java. It might be different for certain interpreted languages where caching behaves differently.
Agreed, especially since dynamic languages pre-allocate space so insertion and deletion is more efficient. They come in most handy for implementing stacks and queues IMO.
One thing that people forget so often is that "linked list" as data structure doesn't have to mean the exact in-memory representation. When you use a
LinkedListclass, you don't care for its implementation details: it could actually be storing elements sequentially like a traditional array, but exposing only the methods so you see it like a linked list.When talking about data structures, it's all about the public interface.
But linked list is the name of a specific implementation of a list. When a class is named
LinkedList, I expect it to be implemented this way.If you don't care about the implementation, it would be better to declare and use an interface named
Listthat is implemented by classes namedLinkedListorArrayList.Indeed, I should've used the term Abstract Data Type (ADT), not data structure.
Still, I don't think that
LinkedListrefers to the way it's implemented. For example, it's not uncommon for a tree to be implemented as two arrays: one to hold the index of the parent and the other to store the actual data. Such data structure could still expose all public methods as a tree, and you wouldn't have to know how it's implemented.One case where they do make sense, is sharing the same (potentially very long) tail among various heads. This is useful when you want to trace something that splits up a lot.
In certain edge-cases a combination of both may also be useful; that is, a linked list of arrays. I haven't come across any use case where this really makes sense though.
The main reason I use linked lists are for queue structures where you frequently need to add to the end or pop the beginning, it's very bad if either of these operations are O(n). Instead you can use a simple singly-linked list.
When using a language like Java though, the LinkedList class isn't that good. The entire point of using a LinkedList over an ArrayList is that you can control certain things to make sure that the list operates as efficiently as possible, but Java's implementation doesn't allow for this.
If only there was an "I'm so effing grateful for my ex" π
GOT IT
Where do circular linked lists fit into this? π€
Big Sean????
I wasn't expecting such a relevant response.
Oooh I should think of a place to put that!
This is awesome - learnt a lot and enjoyed the references along the way π
One question I have - in the remove_value() function because it changes the this.head value does that mean iterating it would start from the removal point?
How would you get it back to the start after removing a value of that is the case?
Thanks!! It only changes
this.headif we are trying to remove the first value. Otherwise, only the node variables will change!Ah I see, I read it wrong. Thanks for clarifying!
For sure!
Whooa! This is an excellent article with a lot of "aris". I loved it.
I want to ask you if it is okay to translate your article in Korean and share it with my Korean dev community? I often translate awesome English articles into Korean. I really like to share yours too.
Thanks for the article anyways π
It is a good article, but it seems to me that it is not relevant to JS Arrays. In JS array is a simple object, but specific a little bit. So no performance profit from the creation of linked list as a data structure in JavaScript.
Please fix me if I am wrong.
Links:
There are definite advantages in certain situations to create a linked list over an array in JavaScript (whether they are common I can't say).
If your array is very large, deleting or adding elements near the beginning of the array can be expensive as all elements after the deleted or added element must be re-indexed. In a linked list, removing a node only affects one other node.
The trade off is the expense of traversing the linked list.
An example of the expense of adding or removing elements at the beginning of an array is comparing the performance of push vs unshift in javascript. I wrote a small function that pushes the value true to the end of an array some number of times and reports the time it took to perform that action, then it takes a new array and unshifts the value true to the beginning of the array the same number of times and reports the time taken for that action. Push with 100,000 elements took 1.8ms, unshift took 4.4 seconds, and I've written this entire paragraph while waiting for the 1,000,000 element unshift to finish. The 1,000,000 element push took 22ms. Now that it finished, the unshift took 12 MINUTES.
If you don't have to traverse very far on the list, the performance gain for adding and removing items near the beginning of the structure can be very significant, finishing in milliseconds instead of minutes.
That is awesome example! And thanks for perf tests you did!! I really forgot about that stuff, shame on me :)
omg i love this so much... i hope everyone who reads this can now make linked "lists and laugh" ;)
I dont work as a programmer so forgive me if I might sounds dumb. Automating excel stuff with vba I only used arrays and few times dictionaries(which from what I Got to know is a synonymous for hashmap/hashtable). I tought that linked lists,stacks and queues where totally different data strutture with no correlation beside strong vakues in some way. I Got myself misleaded when you said you can implement stacks and queues on top od linked list. What do you mean by that? Maybe Next article i ll get it. But then what its seems to me that linked list are not that usefull at all.
Super quick, a stack is a stack of books. You can only put books on top and remove them from the top. So the first book you put is always the last to come in, because after a few books are added it will be at the bottom. To get to that you need to get each and every book sitting on top.
A linked list is a collection of nodes with data in which every node points to something, except the first one that points to nothing.
If you see the example Ali made:
to get to Ariana Grande (the book at the bottom in our stack example) you need to go through all the ex boyfriends. You would have to implement the two operations
pushandpopinstead ofremove_valuewhich removes an arbitrary node (forbidden in a stack) but I hope you can see how you can map a stack on top of a linked list.A queue is a similar concept. The difference between a stack and a queue is that a stack is last-in-first-out (the last boyfriend you add to the structure is the first one to go), a queue is first-in-first-out (the last boyfriend you add to the structure is the last one to go, in this case it's more similar to real-life).
I hope it's a bit clearer
This intersection of pop culture with tech it is so refreshing! This is a great post!
Ali, it's just awesome! Thanks for the material on linked lists. Just note for anyone who is looking for more specific Data Structures and Coding Interview Questions check my blog posts on fullstack.cafe. Hope it will help anyone to crack your next coding interview!
THIS IS PERFECT Now I expect all ways of learning to do so with pop culture. I'm a new learner, and this is one of the few things that just makes sense. Thank you!
aw, that's so good to hear! I'm gonna do more like this!
Shouldn't there be a method to remove a given index?
Itβs incredibly similar to the remove value!
Hi Ali. Thanks for share your knowledge about this topic.ππ
I have a doubt, When your insert data, you put Ari first, then Malcom and then more exes and the last is Sean. But I think, the first element should be insert is Sean because He was the first ex.
When I implemented Linked List, the idea is I don't know what's next element, any element could be insert, so I think the implementation should allow the first data to be inserted should be Sean and not Ari.
That's is no clear for me. Can you explain this situation, please?
This is so good π
hahaha I loved it! Saying it's a unique way to talk about data structures is an understatement :D
Ali, thanks for the article. I found it very helpful and well explained. How would you approach sorting of the linked lists?
Awesome! You could use any normal sorting algorithm that you would use for an array -- I think merge sort is usually preferred for them though. The implementation is uglier than for an array though!
Great way of explaining linked lists!
I wish this could give birth to a new series on dev.to:
Analogies to specific programming paradigms/concepts using songs
I think I might actually do that with pop culture references! Think it's super fun!
Thank you!
Tank you very much. Always love when I find an article talking precisely about something I have to do in a project.
Thank you the tutorial. It is not boring at all.
Thank u
Awesome! I'm going to have to check this pattern out, and see how Generators can be extended/written to create linked lists π€
π
I've only just seen this post today as someone shared it on Twitter. I'm not sure I want to learn other concepts if they won't be framed into an Ariana Grande song. Pure awesome, thanks!