Implement link list without pointer in C Language ??

Question

Implement link list without pointer ??

Answer 1

typedef struct item {
    type data;
    struct item next;
} Item;

and now the C compiler will go to try to figure out how large Item is. But since next is embedded right in Item, it'll end up with an equation like this

size-of-Item = size-of-type + size-of-Item

You end up with an infinitely large data structure that would use an infinite amount of memory, and that of course can't work.

Comments

how you will allocate/assign memory for this ?

Answer 2

I believe the best way to implement the link list without pointer is to use array.

struct node 
{ 
   type data;
   int    index;
};

struct node linklist[MAX_SIZE];

Here index represent the index within the array.

Drawback:
1. All the index may not be used which means a wastage of memory.
2. LinkList can not grow beyond the MAX_SIZE