Linked list java implementation

Definition: A linked list is a recursive data structure that is either empty (null) or a reference to a node having a generic item and a reference to a linked list.

Structure:

Node record:

class Node<Item>

{

Item item;

Node next;

}

A Node class has two instance : an Item (a parameterized type) and a Node.

Building a linked list :

Creating  Node for each item :

Node head = new Node();
Node child = new Node();
Node child2 = new Node();

Setting the item field in each of the nodes to the desired value :

head.item = "Head";
child.item = "child1";
child2.item = 30;

Building linked list :

head.next = child;
child.next = child2;

Insert:
       Insert at the beginning:

           Save a link to the list
           Node oldHead = head;

           create a new node for the beginning
                           head = new Node();

           set the instance variables in the new node  
           head.item = "Xyz";
           head.next = oldHead;   

       Insert at the end:  
         
           save a link to the last node
           Node oldlast = head;

           create a new node for the end
           Node last = new Node();
           last.item = "something";

           link the new node to the end of the list
           oldlast.next = last;


Traversal: Using For loop
       
for (Node x = head ; x != null; x = x.next)
{
// Process x.item.

}