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clinked-listtraversal

How to traverse a linked list in c without destroying it in C?

I know that to traverse I can make a temp linked list and go: 

while (temp->next!=NULL){
    ...}

However, what if I want to change one position of my actual lists while traversing it? The only way I can think of is to traverse the actual linked list from the head, but wouldn't it destroy my linked list after it reaches the end?

Solution

  • assume you have a list myList, and myList.head points to the first element:

    temp = myList.head;
while (temp->next!=NULL){
  // do stuff with this element
  ...
  temp = temp->next; // get the next element
  }

    Now you can go right back and do it again - myList is still the same, and 

    temp = myList.head;

    gets you right back to the beginning again.