Given two linked lists, insert nodes of the second list into the first list at alternate positions of the first list.
For example, if first list is 5->7->17->13->11 and second is 12->10->2->4->6, the first list should become 5->12->7->10->17->2->13->4->11->6 and second list should become empty. The nodes of the second list should only be inserted when there are positions available. For example, if the first list is 1->2->3 and the second list is 4->5->6->7->8, then the first list should become 1->4->2->5->3->6 and the second list to 7->8.
Use of extra space is not allowed (Not allowed to create additional nodes), i.e., insertion must be done in-place. The expected time complexity is O(n) where n is a number of nodes in the first list.
The idea is to run a loop while there are available positions in first loop and insert nodes of second list by changing pointers. Following are implementations of this approach.
Javascript
<script>
class Node
{
constructor()
{
this .data = 0;
this .next = null ;
}
};
function push(head_ref, new_data)
{
var new_node = new Node();
new_node.data = new_data;
new_node.next = (head_ref);
(head_ref) = new_node;
return head_ref;
}
function printList(head)
{
var temp = head;
while (temp != null )
{
document.write( temp.data + " " );
temp = temp.next;
}
document.write( "<br>" );
}
function merge(p, q)
{
var p_curr = p, q_curr = q;
var p_next, q_next;
while (p_curr != null &&
q_curr != null )
{
p_next = p_curr.next;
q_next = q_curr.next;
q_curr.next = p_next;
p_curr.next = q_curr;
p_curr = p_next;
q_curr = q_next;
}
q = q_curr;
return q;
}
var p = null , q = null ;
p = push(p, 3);
p = push(p, 2);
p = push(p, 1);
document.write(
"First Linked List:<br>" );
printList(p);
q = push(q, 8);
q = push(q, 7);
q = push(q, 6);
q = push(q, 5);
q = push(q, 4);
document.write(
"Second Linked List:<br>" );
printList(q);
q = merge(p, q);
document.write(
"Modified First Linked List:<br>" );
printList(p);
document.write(
"Modified Second Linked List:<br>" );
printList(q);
</script>
|
Output:
First Linked List:
1 2 3
Second Linked List:
4 5 6 7 8
Modified First Linked List:
1 4 2 5 3 6
Modified Second Linked List:
7 8
Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)
Please refer complete article on Merge a linked list into another linked list at alternate positions for more details!