SE250:HTTB:Pointers:Uses of pointers

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A linked list structure is made of data cells ordered and linked by pointers. Example: Definition for data cell

typedef struct {
     int data; 
     struct node *next;
} cell;

Every instance of a data cell contains a pointer which can point to the next data cell in the list.

For more details read Linked Lists

An array-based list structure consists of a defined "node" pointing to the start of an array. Example:

typedef struct {
  int *start;     
  int capacity;
  int length;
} Arraylist

The data in the array can be modified by applying Pointer Arithmetic on the *start pointer.

For more details read Array-based Lists

A binary search tree consists of "nodes", with each node having pointers to neighbouring nodes. Example:

typedef
struct Node {
  int data;
  struct Node *left;
  struct Node *right;
  struct Node *parent;	
} Node;

Each node will store data as well as point to other adjacent nodes. This is similar to the data cells of a linked list.

For more details read Binary_Search_Trees

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