Week 9: Impressions on Week 8: Linked Lists

Hello,

This week we started talking about a new abstract data type, Linked Lists. As I said in my past post, when I want to start learning a new abstract data type, I usually think of an analogy or a visual accompaniment. Thinking of linked lists as a train with cargo helps me visualize how each node (cargo truck) is linked to some other node (another cargo truck) and so on.

Another way I thought of myself to think of linked lists is visualizing it as a one child tree. Unlike a tree (no limits children) or binary tree (two children) a linked list only has one child. 

Linked Lists were reasonable to learn and not to difficult to understand. The only problem I am having is understanding how to apply my knowledge of linked lists. I can't think of many situation where I would have to represent data in the fashion of a linked list. Maybe later on in the course we would use practical examples of linked lists to see how they may be useful and how they may make data easier to read and write.

Thanks for reading,
Rod Mazloomi