C Program for Insertion at the nth node of Singly Linked List

Insertion at the nth node of the Singly Linked List

On this page, we will understand how to insert a node in the middle of a singly Linked List. Basically, we will try to insert a new node after some nth node. Lets look at how to do it below –

C Program for Insertion at the nth node of the Singly Linked List

Steps to Insert node at any position in linked list in C:-

  • Traverse the Linked List till the nth node
  • Allocate the data and memory for the new node
  • Assign the next pointer of the specific nth position node to this new node
  • Assign the next pointer of this newNode to (n+1)th node (Nth node’s next)

If inserting after 0th position this means entering at the start

In this step assign new node’s next to the current head and also change the head of Linked List.

Insertion at nth position in Singly Linked List

Code for Constructing Node of the Singly Linked List:-

struct Node
{
    int data;
    struct Node* next;
};

C Program for insertion after the Nth node of the Singly Linked List:-

Let us look at the program below to do linked list insert after nth position
Run
//Linked list insertion at specific position in C
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

struct Node
{
  int data;
  struct Node *next;
};

// required for insertAfter
int getCurrSize (struct Node *node)
{
  int size = 0;

  while (node != NULL)
    {
      node = node->next;
      size++;
    }
  return size;
}

//function to insert after nth node
void insertPosition (int pos, int data, struct Node **head)
{
  int size = getCurrSize (*head);

  struct Node *newNode = (struct Node *) malloc (sizeof (struct Node));
  newNode->data = data;
  newNode->next = NULL;

  // Can't insert if position to insert is greater than size of Linked List
  // can insert after negative pos
  if (pos < 0 || pos > size)
    printf ("Invalid position to insert\n");

  // inserting first node
  else if (pos == 0)
    {
      newNode->next = *head;
      *head = newNode;
    }

  else
    {
      // temp used to traverse the Linked List
      struct Node *temp = *head;

      // traverse till the nth node
      while (--pos)
	temp = temp->next;

      // assign newNode's next to nth node's next
      newNode->next = temp->next;
      // assign nth node's next to this new node
      temp->next = newNode;
      // newNode inserted b/w 3rd and 4th node
    }
}

void display (struct Node *node)
{

  printf ("Linked List : ");

  // as linked list will end when Node is Null
  while (node != NULL)
    {
      printf ("%d ", node->data);
      node = node->next;
    }
  printf ("\n");
}

int main ()
{

  //creating 4 pointers of type struct Node
  //So these can point to address of struct type variable
  struct Node *head = NULL;
  struct Node *node2 = NULL;
  struct Node *node3 = NULL;
  struct Node *node4 = NULL;

  // allocate 3 nodes in the heap 
  head = (struct Node *) malloc (sizeof (struct Node));
  node2 = (struct Node *) malloc (sizeof (struct Node));
  node3 = (struct Node *) malloc (sizeof (struct Node));
  node4 = (struct Node *) malloc (sizeof (struct Node));


  head->data = 10;		// data set for head node 
  head->next = node2;		// next pointer assigned to address of node2 

  node2->data = 20;
  node2->next = node3;

  node3->data = 30;
  node3->next = node4;

  node4->data = 40;
  node4->next = NULL;


  display (head);

  //Inserts data: 15 after the 1st node
  insertPosition (1, 15, &head);

  //Inserts data: 25 after the 3rd node
  insertPosition (3, 25, &head);

  //Inserts data: 35 after the 5th node
  insertPosition (5, 35, &head);

  //Inserts data: 25 after the 7th node
  insertPosition (7, 45, &head);

  display (head);

  // Invalid: can't insert after -2 pos
  insertPosition (-2, 100, &head);

  // Invalid: Current size 8, trying to enter after 10th pos
  insertPosition (10, 200, &head);

  return 0;
}

Output

Linked List : 10 20 30 40 
Linked List : 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Invalid position to insert
Invalid position to insert
Quiz time

Quiz Time

Question 1. The nth node in a singly list is accessed via?

(Flipkart – HackerEarth Test)

We can access the nth node in a Singly Linked List by creating a temp node with initialized value as the head reference and then keep moving to the next node n times that is traversing n nodes from the start so that the reference pointer now points towards the nth node, this is true for the nth node in singly linked list, is accessed via (where n>1)