Hi Jim, "JC(oesd)" wrote:
> I just had a friend explain in some little detail about linked lists in C > using structures. > > How would such a thing be done with Perl? In brief, Perl already has a built-in linked list structure. It is called Array. > This may help me understand C's > version a little better. Probably not. Perl and C take very different paths when handling low-level functionality. In Perl, you don't have the precisely typed variables that you use with C. Nor do you have the straightforward definition of new types that you get with a C struct or C++ class. Although you could artificially construct a linked list in Perl, it probably would not make sense, or render any results you could not obtain using the built-in containers. I strongly suspect that the Perl Array type is actually implemented on a linked list. It operates in very similar ways, with push and pop providing stack-type functionality, and shift accessing the first-in item of a queue. Also, the Perl Array type allows the deletion of elements [but DON'T DO IT while iterating through the array], which is a very linked-list sort of offering: In a list you can simply re-link the node preceding the deltion node to the node following it, then delete the deletion node itself. In a true array you would have to shift the values in all subsequent nodes backwards to fill in the gap. Joseph -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
