Welcome to our exploration of linked lists! Unlike arrays that store elements in contiguous memory locations with fixed indices, linked lists organize data in nodes connected through pointers. Each node contains data and a reference to the next node, allowing for dynamic memory allocation and flexible data organization. This fundamental difference makes linked lists particularly useful for scenarios where the size of data changes frequently.
Let's examine the anatomy of a linked list node in detail. Each node consists of two essential parts: the data field and the pointer field. The data field stores the actual value, which can be any data type like integers, strings, or complex objects. The pointer field stores the memory address of the next node in the sequence. Here we see examples of different node types: an integer node storing 42, a string node containing 'Hello', and a float node with 3.14. The pointer values show actual memory addresses, with NULL indicating the end of the list.