Interview Question: Merge two sorted singly linked lists without creating new nodes
Node MergeLists(Node list1, Node list2) {
if (list1 == null) return list2;
if (list2 == null) return list1;
if (list1.data < list2.data) {
list1.next = MergeLists(list1.next, list2);
return list1;
} else {
list2.next = MergeLists(list2.next, list1);
return list2;
}
}
Recursion should not be needed to avoid allocating a new node:
Node MergeLists(Node list1, Node list2) {
if (list1 == null) return list2;
if (list2 == null) return list1;
Node head;
if (list1.data < list2.data) {
head = list1;
} else {
head = list2;
list2 = list1;
list1 = head;
}
while(list1.next != null) {
if (list1.next.data > list2.data) {
Node tmp = list1.next;
list1.next = list2;
list2 = tmp;
}
list1 = list1.next;
}
list1.next = list2;
return head;
}
Node MergeLists(Node node1, Node node2)
{
if(node1 == null)
return node2;
else (node2 == null)
return node1;
Node head;
if(node1.data < node2.data)
{
head = node1;
node1 = node1.next;
else
{
head = node2;
node2 = node2.next;
}
Node current = head;
while((node1 != null) ||( node2 != null))
{
if (node1 == null) {
current.next = node2;
return head;
}
else if (node2 == null) {
current.next = node1;
return head;
}
if (node1.data < node2.data)
{
current.next = node1;
current = current.next;
node1 = node1.next;
}
else
{
current.next = node2;
current = current.next;
node2 = node2.next;
}
}
current.next = NULL // needed to complete the tail of the merged list
return head;
}