Reverse the pointers in a linked list - c

Question

Hello guys could you please help me in writing a procedure to reverse the pointers in a linked list . for example A->B->C->D would become A<-B<-C<-D without using extra linked list .
Edit:
------ okay guys so i have been looking for solution for this problem here is the code in case u want it :
void reverse_list(){
struct node *next, *current,*previous;
previous = NULL;
current =head;
while(current != NULL){
next = current->next;
current->next = previous;
previous=current;
current = next;
}
head = previous;
}

Answer 1

You could think of the list as a stack. Then you could easily reverse such a list by "popping" the nodes and "pushing" them into a new list.
The above could be done both destructively (destroying the old list) and non-destructively (creating the new list as a reversed copy of the original list).

Answer 2

As you didn't mention if you are implementing the linked list yourself or not.
So firstly I am assuming that you are doing it by yourself. So following is an implementation of linked list and again its pointers are reversed to make the link list reverse. You can take an idea from it.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>//for using malloc
struct Node//Defining a structure for linked list's node
{
int info;//assuming it is an integer linked list
struct Node *link;//this pointer links a node to it's immediate neighbor node
};
struct Node *head=NULL,*temp;//some initializations and declarations
void insertion(int data)//To insert elements to linked list
{
struct Node *ptr;
ptr=malloc(sizeof(*ptr));//creating a new node for the newcomer
ptr->info=data;//taking the given integer value for the node to hold
//initializing with null as the current node may be the last node and
//if it is then it will point nobody
//...but if it is not when a new node comes in the future it will eventually be
//replaced to point the newcomer
ptr->link=NULL;
if(head==NULL)//head still null means we are creating the first node
{ //handling the head separately as it has no parent node
head=ptr;
temp=ptr;//copying the current node's pointer to temp such that we can
//find it as a parent of next node
}
else//for the rest of the nodes' creation
{
//as temp is the pointer to the previous node, so previous node is linking
//to its next node, i.e, the current node
temp->link=ptr;
//updating the temp to point the current node such that it can act as a parent node
//when the next node comes
temp=ptr;
}
}
void reversePointers()
{
struct Node *trav,*from=NULL,*temp;
for(trav=head;;)
{
if(trav->link==NULL)//if we have reached to the end
{
head=trav;//then the reverse linked list's head should point to the last element
trav->link=from;//and making the second last node as it's next node
break;
}
temp=trav;//saving current node pointer to update the "from" pointer
trav=trav->link;//advancing current node pointer to forward
temp->link=from;//making the current node to point to it's previous node
from=temp;//saving current node's pointer which will be used in next iteration
}
}
void traverse()//to traverse the nodes
{
struct Node *ptr=head;
while(ptr!=NULL)
{
printf("%d ",ptr->info);
ptr=ptr->link;
}
printf("\n");
}
int main(void)
{
int i,n,t;
printf("Enter Number of elements: ");
scanf("%d",&n);
printf("Enter Elements: ");
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
scanf("%d",&t);
insertion(t);
}
printf("Before reversing the pointers the elements are: ");
traverse();
//let's reverse the pointers to make the list to go backward
reversePointers();
printf("After reversing the pointers the elements are: ");
traverse();
}
Secondly if you are using STL list then the approach is quite straightforward. Just use,
your_list_name.reverse()
Again if you want to reverse the STL list just for iteration purpose then there is no need to actually reverse it. Instead you can use reverse iterator as following (say for an integer list):
for(list<int>::reverse_iterator it=your_list_name.rbegin();it!=your_list_name.rend();it++)
{
//do whatever you want
}