Counting occurrence in singly linked list by nodes - c++

Question

I am writing a simple app that gets a list and saves the objects as nodes in a singly linked list and we can add(), remove(), copy(), etc. each node depending on the given data set. each node has a char value which is our data and an int count which counts the occurrence of the related char.
e.g. for a list like
a, a, b, b, c, a
there would be three nodes (since there are three different characters) which are:
[a,3,*next] -> [b,2,*next] -> [c,1,*next] -> nullptr
bool isAvailable() checks if the data is already in the list or not.
Q: When inserting a data there are two options:
The data has not been entered: so we have to create a newNodewith the given data, count=1and *next=NULL.
The data is already entered: so we have to count++ the node that has the same data.
I know if the given data is available or not, but how can I point to the node with same data?
Here's the code:
#include "stdafx.h"
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
class Snode
{
public:
char data;
int count;
Snode *next;
Snode(char d, int c)
{
data = d;
count = c;
next = NULL;
}
};
class set
{
private:
Snode *head;
public:
set()
{
head = NULL;
tail = NULL;
}
~set();
void insert(char value);
bool isAvailable(char value);
};
set::~set()
{
Snode *t = head;
while (t != NULL)
{
head = head->next;
delete t;
}
}
bool set::isAvailable(char value)
{
Snode *floatingNode = new Snode(char d, int c);
while(floatingNode != NULL)
{
return (value == floatingNode);
floatingNode->next = floatingNode;
}
}
void set::insert(char value)
{
Snode *newNode = new Snode(char d, int c);
data = value;
if (head == NULL)
{
newNode->next = NULL;
head = newNode;
newNode->count++;
}
else
{
if(isAvailable)
{
//IDK what should i do here +_+
}
else
{
tail->next= newNode;
newNode->next = NULL;
tail = newNode;
}
}
}

Answer 1

I know if the given data is available or not, but how can I point to the node with same data?
You'll need to start at the head of the list and iterate along the list by following the next pointers until you find the node with the same data value. Once you've done that, you have your pointer to the node with the same data.
Some other notes for you:
bool set::isAvailable(char value)
{
Snode *floatingNode = new Snode(char d, int c);
while(floatingNode != NULL)
{
return (value == floatingNode);
floatingNode->next = floatingNode;
}
}
Why is this function allocating a new Snode? There's no reason for it to do that, just initialize the floatingNode pointer to point to head instead.
This function always returns after looking at only the first node in the linked list -- which is not the behavior you want. Instead, it should return true only if (value == floatingNode); otherwise it should stay inside the while-loop so that it can go on to look at the subsequent nodes as well. Only after it drops out of the while-loop (because floatingNode finally becomes NULL) should it return false.
If you were to modify isAvailable() slightly so that instead of returning true or false, it returned either floatingPointer or NULL, you'd have your mechanism for finding a pointer to the node with the matching data.
e.g.:
// Should return either a pointer to the Snode with data==value,
// or NULL if no such Snode is present in the list
Snode * set::getNodeWithValueOrNullIfNotFound(char value) const
{
[...]
}
void set::insert(char value)
{
Snode * theNode = getNodeWithValueOrNullIfNotFound(value);
if (theNode != NULL)
{
theNode->count++;
}
else
{
[create a new Snode and insert it]
}
}

Answer 2

You had a lot of problems in your code, lets see what are they:
First of all, Snode doesn't need to be a class, rather you can go with a simple strcut; since we need everything public.(not a mistake, but good practice)
You could simple initialize count = 1 and next = nullptr, so that no need of initializing them throw constructor. The only element that need to be initialized through constructor is Snod's data.
Since c++11 you can use keyword nullptr instead of NULL, which denotes the pointer literal.
Member function bool set::isAvailable(char value) will not work as you think. Here you have unnecessarily created a new Snode and cheacking whether it points to nullptr which doesn't allow you to even enter the loop. BTW what you have written in the loop also wrong. What do you mean by return (value == floatingNode); ? floatingNode is a Snode by type; not a char.
Hear is the correct implementation. Since we don't wanna overwrite the head, will create a Node* pointer and assign head to it. Then iterate through list until you find a match. If not found, we will reach the end of the isAvailable() and return false.
inline bool isAvailable(const char& value)
{
Node *findPos = head;
while(findPos != nullptr)
{
if(findPos -> data == value) return true;
else findPos = findPos->next_node;
}
return false;
}
In void set::insert(char value), your logic is correct, but implementation is wrong. Following is the correct implementation.(Hope the comments will help you to understand.
void insert(const char& value)
{
if(head == nullptr) // first case
{
Node *newNode = new Node(value);
newNode->next_node = head;
head = newNode;
}
else if(isAvailable(value)) // if node available
{
Node *temp = head;
while(temp->data != value) // find the node
temp = temp->next_node;
temp->count += 1; // and count it by 1
}
else // all new nodes
{
Node *temp = head;
while(temp->next_node != nullptr) // to find the null point (end of list)
temp = temp->next_node;
temp = temp->next_node = new Node(value); // create a node and assign there
}
}
Your destructor will not delete all what you created. It will be UB, since your are deleting newly created Snode t ( i.e, Snode *t = head;). The correct implementation is as bellow.(un-comment the debugging msg to understand.)
~set()
{
Node* temp = head;
while( temp != nullptr )
{
Node* next = temp->next_node;
//std::cout << "deleting \t" << temp->data << std::endl;
delete temp;
temp = next;
}
head = nullptr;
}
Last but not least, the naming (set) what you have here and what the code exactly doing are both different. This looks more like a simple linked list with no duplicates. This is however okay, in order to play around with pointers and list.
To make the code or iteration more efficient, you could do something like follows. In the isAvailable(), in case of value match/ if you found a node, you could simply increment its count as well. Then in insert(), you can think of, if node is not available part.
Hope this was helpful. See a DEMO
#include <iostream>
// since you wanna have all of Node in public, declare as struct
struct Node
{
char data;
int count = 1;
Node* next_node = nullptr;
Node(const char& a) // create a constrcor which will initilize data
: data(a) {} // at the time of Node creation
};
class set
{
private:
Node *head; // need only head, if it's a simple list
public:
set() :head(nullptr) {} // constructor set it to nullptr
~set()
{
Node* temp = head;
while( temp != nullptr )
{
Node* next = temp->next_node;
//std::cout << "deleting \t" << temp->data << std::endl;
delete temp;
temp = next;
}
head = nullptr;
}
inline bool isAvailable(const char& value)
{
Node *findPos = head;
while(findPos != nullptr)
{
if(findPos -> data == value) return true;
else findPos = findPos->next_node;
}
return false;
}
void insert(const char& value)
{
if(head == nullptr) // first case
{
Node *newNode = new Node(value);
newNode->next_node = head;
head = newNode;
}
else if(isAvailable(value)) // if node available
{
Node *temp = head;
while(temp->data != value) // find the node
temp = temp->next_node;
temp->count += 1; // and count it by 1
}
else // all new nodes
{
Node *temp = head;
while(temp->next_node != nullptr) // to find the null point (end of list)
temp = temp->next_node;
temp = temp->next_node = new Node(value);
}
}
void print() const // just to print
{
Node *temp = head;
while(temp != nullptr)
{
std::cout << temp->data << " " << temp->count << "\n";
temp = temp->next_node;
}
}
};
int main()
{
::set mySet;
mySet.insert('a');
mySet.insert('a');
mySet.insert('b');
mySet.insert('b');
mySet.insert('c');
mySet.insert('a');
mySet.print();
return 0;
}