4/10/2019 Concatenating two linked lists in C.

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Concatenating two linked lists in C.

 May 25, 2017  C (/blog/tag/c/?tag=c) LINKED LIST (/blog/tag/linked-list/?tag=linked-list) DATA STRUCUTRE
(/blog/tag/data-strucutre/?tag=data-strucutre)  18044

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Previous:
1. Linked lists in C (Singly linked list) (https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/linked-lists-
in-c-singly-linked-list/)

2. Linked list traversal using while loop and recursion

(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/linked-list-traversal-using-while-loop-and-
recursi/)

Make sure that you are familiar with the concepts explained in the article(s) mentioned above
before proceeding further.

We will proceed further by taking the linked list we made in the previous article.

https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/concatenating-two-linked-lists-in-c/ 2/12
4/10/2019 Concatenating two linked lists in C.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

struct node
{
int data;
struct node *next;
};

int main()
{
struct node *prev,*head,*p;
int n,i;
printf ("number of elements:");
scanf("%d",&n);
head=NULL;
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
p=malloc(sizeof(struct node));
scanf("%d",&p->data);
p->next=NULL;
if(head==NULL)
head=p;
else
prev->next=p;
prev=p;
}
return 0;
}

Concatenating or joining two linked lists is not at all a difficult task. We just need to follow
some very simple steps and the steps to join two lists (say ‘a’ and ‘b’) are as follows:

1. Traverse over the linked list ‘a’ until the element next to the node is not NULL.

2. If the element next to the current element is NULL (a->next == NULL) then change the
element next to it to ‘b’ (a->next = b).

That’s it. Let’s code up these steps.

void concatenate(struct node *a,struct node *b)

{
if (a->next == NULL)
a->next = b;
else
concatenate(a->next,b);
}

Here, we are  traversing over the article using recursion as explained in the article “Linked list
traversal using while loop and recursion (https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/linked-list-
traversal-using-while-loop-and-recursi/)”. We are firstly  checking if the next node (a->next) is

https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/concatenating-two-linked-lists-in-c/ 3/12
4/10/2019 Concatenating two linked lists in C.

NULL or not. If it is NULL, then we are just changing its value from NULL to ‘b’ (a->next = b)
and if it is not then we are calling the ‘concatenate’ function again with the next element to
traverse over the list.

So, the whole code is:

https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/concatenating-two-linked-lists-in-c/ 4/12
4/10/2019 Concatenating two linked lists in C.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

struct node
{
int data;
struct node *next;
};

display(struct node *head)

{
if(head == NULL)
{
printf("NULL\n");
}
else
{
printf("%d\n", head -> data);
display(head->next);
}
}

void concatenate(struct node *a,struct node *b)

{
if( a != NULL && b!= NULL )
{
if (a->next == NULL)
a->next = b;
else
concatenate(a->next,b);
}
else
{
printf("Either a or b is NULL\n");
}
}

int main()
{
struct node *prev,*a, *b, *p;
int n,i;
printf ("number of elements in a:");
scanf("%d",&n);
a=NULL;
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
p=malloc(sizeof(struct node));
scanf("%d",&p->data);
p->next=NULL;
if(a==NULL)
a=p;
else
prev->next=p;
prev=p;
}
printf ("number of elements in b:");
scanf("%d",&n);
b=NULL;
for(i=0;i<n;i++)

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4/10/2019 Concatenating two linked lists in C.

{
p=malloc(sizeof(struct node));
scanf("%d",&p->data);
p->next=NULL;
if(b==NULL)
b=p;
else
prev->next=p;
prev=p;
}
concatenate(a,b);
return 0;
}

Next:
1. Inserting a new node in a linked list in C
(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/inserting-a-new-node-in-a-linked-list-in-c/)

2. Deletion of a given node from a linked list in C

(https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/deletion-of-a-give-node-from-a-linked-list-in-c/)

3. Array vs Linked list in C (https://www.codesdope.com/blog/article/array-vs-linked-list-in-

c/)

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