adding node at last in Linked List in C++ - c++

Question

I have tried to implement Singly Linked List. My addAtLast() function is not getting executed properly. Program crashes while executing this function. Kindly suggest some changes.
class LList
{
public:
int noOfNodes;
Node const *start;/*Header Node*/
LList()
{
start=new Node;
noOfNodes=0;start=0;
}
void addAtFront(Node* n)
{
/*
cout<<endl<<"class"<<n;
cout<<"start"<<start;
cout<<"data in node";n->print();
*/
n->next=const_cast<Node*>(start);
start=n;
// cout<<" next=";start->print();
noOfNodes++;
}
void addAtLast(Node* n)
{
Node *cur=const_cast<Node*>(start);
if (start==NULL)
{
start=n;
return;
}
while(cur->next!=NULL)
{
cur=cur->next;
}
cur->next=n;
noOfNodes++;
}
int getPosition(Node data)
{
int pos=0;
Node *cur=const_cast<Node*>(start);
while(cur!=NULL)
{
pos++;
if(*cur==data)
{
return pos;
}
cur=cur->next;
}
return -1;//not found
}
Node getNode(int pos)
{
if(pos<1)
return -1;// not a valid position
else if(pos>noOfNodes)
return -1; // not a valid position
Node *cur=const_cast<Node*>(start);
int curPos=0;
while(cur!=NULL)
{
if(++curPos==pos)
return *cur;
cur=cur->next;
}
}
void traverse()
{
Node *cur=const_cast<Node*>(start);
while(cur!=NULL)
{
// cout<<"start"<<start;
cur->print();
cur=cur->next;
}
}
~LList()
{
delete start;
}
};

Answer 1

void addAtLast(Node* n) {
Node *cur=const_cast<Node*>(start);
if(start==NULL) {
start=n;
n->next = NULL;
noOfNodes++;
return;
}
while(cur->next!=NULL) {
cur=cur->next;
}
cur->next=n;
n->next = NULL; // Added
noOfNodes++;
}

Answer 2

I mentioned this in-comment, but will address it here as an answer. The caller of this function must ensure two things:
That the passed-in node list (and it is a list, even if only one element long) must be properly terminated with an end-next-pointer set to NULL. The caller must ensure this, as this code cannot assume it and blindly set node->next = NULL;
Make absolutely sure the caller is aware that once this executes, this list now owns the passed-in node and any list it potentially starts and the caller, therefore, must NOT free it, or anything it points to, on the caller side.
Apart from the node-count management issue, there is nothing wrong with the addAtLast() function, though I would have implemented it a little differently:
void addAtLast(Node* n)
{
// no nulls allowed
if (n == NULL)
return;
// set start if first in list
if (start == NULL)
{
start = n;
noOfNodes = 1;
}
// else walk list to find end
else
{
Node *cur = const_cast<Node*>(start);
while(cur->next != NULL)
cur = cur->next;
cur->next = n;
++noOfNodes;
}
// adjust count to contain any nodes from 'n'
while (n->next != NULL)
{
++noOfnodes;
n = n->next;
}
}

Answer 3

From the beginning..
start=new Node;
noOfNodes=0;start=0;
Should this be?
start=new Node;
noOfNodes=0;start->next=NULL;
Within 2 lines you've created memory leak. I have no idea why you would want to set start=0. Don't do that, you've just assigned memory to it!
As for the crash, it's addressed by #liulinhuai's answer. You'll be dereferencing a pointer that is uninitialized attempting to get it's next member.

Answer 4

In your ctor you set start as 0. In your crash function you first check it for NULL:
if (start==NULL)
{
start=n;
//n->next is now points to nowhere
return;
}
Next call to addAtLast iterate until it finds NULL but previous assign didnt set next pointer to NULL so second iteration will cause an access violation:
while(cur->next!=NULL) {
//first time it's ok but second call on cur will crash
cur=cur->next;
}
Solution is - all new Node's must have next pointer setted to NULL