Question

I am creating a linked list as in the previous question I asked. I have found that the best way to develop the linked list is to have the head and tail in another structure. My products struct will be nested inside this structure. And I should be passing the list to the function for adding and deleting. I find this concept confusing.

I have implemented the initialize, add, and clean_up. However, I am not sure that I have done that correctly.

When I add a product to the list I declare some memory using calloc. But I am thinking shouldn’t I be declaring the memory for the product instead. I am really confused about this adding.

Many thanks for any suggestions,

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

#define PRODUCT_NAME_LEN 128

typedef struct product_data 
{
    int product_code;
    char product_name[PRODUCT_NAME_LEN];
    int product_cost;
    struct product_data_t *next;
}product_data_t;

typedef struct list 
{
    product_data_t *head;
    product_data_t *tail;
}list_t;

void add(list_t *list, int code, char name[], int cost); 
void initialize(list_t *list);
void clean_up(list_t *list);

int main(void)
{
    list_t *list = NULL;

    initialize(list);
    add(list, 10, "Dell Inspiron", 1500);
    clean_up(list);

    getchar();

    return 0;
}

void add(list_t *list, int code, char name[], int cost)
{
    // Allocate memory for the new product
    list = calloc(1, sizeof(list_t));
    if(!list)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Cannot allocated memory");
        exit(1);
    }

    if(list)
    {
        // First item to add to the list
        list->head->product_code = code;
        list->head->product_cost = cost;
        strncpy(list->head->product_name, name, sizeof(list->head->product_name));
        // Terminate the string
        list->head->product_name[127] = '/0';
    } 
}

// Initialize linked list
void initialize(list_t *list)
{
    // Set list node to null
    list = NULL;
    list = NULL;
}

// Release all resources
void clean_up(list_t *list)
{    
    list_t *temp = NULL;

    while(list)
    {
        temp = list->head;
        list->head = list->head->next;
        free(temp);    
    }
    list = NULL;
    list = NULL;
    temp = NULL;
}

============================== Edited ============================

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

#define PRODUCT_NAME_LEN 64

// typedef struct product_data product_data_t;
typedef struct product_data 
{
    int product_code;
    char product_name[PRODUCT_NAME_LEN];
    int product_cost;
}product_data_t;

typedef struct list
{
    struct list *head;
    struct list *tail;
    struct list *next;
    struct list *current_node;
    product_data_t *data;

}list_t;

void add(list_t *list, int code, char name[], int cost); 

int main(void)
{
    list_t *list = NULL;
    list = initialize(list);
    add(list, 1001, "Dell Inspiron 2.66", 1299);

    add(list, 1002, "Macbook Pro 2.66", 1499);

    clean_up(list);

    getchar();

    return 0;
}

void add(list_t *list, int code, char name[], int cost)
{
    /* Allocate memory for the new product */
    product_data_t *product = (product_data_t*) calloc(1, sizeof(*product));
    if(!product)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Cannot allocate memory.");
        exit(1);
    }

    /* This is the first item in the list */
    product->product_code = code;
    product->product_cost = cost;
    strncpy(product->product_name, name, sizeof(product->product_name));
    product->product_name[PRODUCT_NAME_LEN - 1] = '\0';

    if(!list->head)
    {
        /* Assign the address of the product. */
        list = (list_t*) product;   
        /* Set the head and tail to this product */
        list->head = (list_t*) product;
        list->tail = (list_t*) product;
    }
    else
    {
        /* Append to the tail of the list. */
        list->tail->next = (list_t*) product;
        list->tail = (list_t*) product;
    }

    /* Assign the address of the product to the data on the list. */
    list->data = (list_t*) product;
}

Answer 1

In your case the head and tail could simply point to the beginning and end of a linked-list. With a singly linked-list, only the head is really needed. At it’s most basic, a linked-list can be made by using just a struct like:

typedef struct listnode
{
   //some data
   struct listnode *next;
}listnodeT;

listnodeT *list;
listnodeT *current_node;
list = (listnodeT*)malloc(sizeof(listnodeT));
current_node = list;

and as long as list is always pointing to the beginning of the list and the last item has next set to NULL, you’re fine and can use current_node to traverse the list. But sometimes to make traversing the list easier and to store any other data about the list, a head and tail token are used, and wrapped into their own structure, like you have done. So then your add and initialize functions would be something like (minus error detection)

    // Initialize linked list
void initialize(list_t *list)
{
    list->head = NULL;
    list->tail = NULL;
}

void add(list_t *list, int code, char name[], int cost)
{
    // set up the new node
    product_data_t *node = (product_data_t*)malloc(sizeof(product_data_t));
    node->code = code;
    node->cost = cost;
    strncpy(node->product_name, name, sizeof(node->product_name));
    node->next = NULL;

    if(list->head == NULL){ // if this is the first node, gotta point head to it
        list->head = node;
        list->tail = node;  // for the first node, head and tail point to the same node
    }else{
        tail->next = node;  // append the node
        tail = node;        // point the tail at the end
    }
}

In this case, since it’s a singly linked-list, the tail is only really useful for appending items to the list. To insert an item, you’ll have to traverse the list starting at the head. Where the tail really comes in handy is with a doubly-linked list, it allows you to traverse the list starting at either end. You can traverse this list like

// return a pointer to element with product code
product_data_t*  seek(list_t *list, int code){
   product_data_t* iter = list->head;
   while(iter != NULL)
       if(iter->code == code)
           return iter;
       iter = iter->next;
   }
   return NULL; // element with code doesn't exist
}

Often times, the head and tail are fully constructed nodes themselves used as a sentinel to denote the beginning and end of a list. They don’t store data themselves (well rather, their data represent a sentinel token), they are just place holders for the front and back. This can make it easier to code some algorithms dealing with linked lists at the expense of having to have two extra elements. Overall, linked lists are flexible data structures with several ways to implement them.

oh yeah, and nik is right, playing with linked-lists are a great way to get good with pointers and indirection. And they are also a great way to practice recursion too! After you have gotten good with linked-list, try building a tree next and use recursion to walk the tree.