Introduction to In-Place Manipulation of a Linked List
Explore how to modify linked lists directly within their structure without using additional memory. Understand in-place techniques like reversing nodes and rotating lists efficiently. This lesson equips you to handle linked list problems with O(1) space, enhancing performance and applying these concepts to real-world scenarios such as file and memory management.
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About the pattern
The in-place manipulation of a linked list pattern allows us to modify a linked list without using any additional memory. In-place refers to an algorithm that processes or modifies a data structure using only the existing memory space, without requiring additional memory proportional to the input size. This pattern is best suited for problems where we need to modify the structure of the linked list, i.e., the order in which nodes are linked together. For example, some problems require a reversal of a set of nodes in a linked list which can extend to reversing the whole linked list. Instead of making a new linked list with reversed links, we can do it in place without using additional memory. ...