Traversal in a Singly Linked List
Explore how to traverse a singly linked list by visiting each node starting from the head, processing data, and moving through next references. Understand why traversal has linear time complexity and constant space complexity. Learn to implement traversal in Java and avoid common mistakes such as altering the head pointer or causing infinite loops. This lesson helps you confidently perform search, count, and data collection operations within linked lists.
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By now, you understand how a linked list is organized in memory and how the head pointer gives access to the first node. Now, let’s learn how traversal works in a singly linked list. The focus will be on how the next references are followed from node to node and why this leads to linear time complexity.
Linked list traversal
Traversal means visiting each node in the linked list one by one. The process starts from the head and repeatedly follows the next reference until reaching NULL.
As linked lists do not support direct indexing, traversal is required to:
Print all elements in the list.
Search for a specific value.
Count the number of nodes.
Reach a specific node or position in the list. ...