I cannot traverse through my linked list, after creating an array of nodes

Question

I've created an array of nodes for a linked list however when I attempt to traverse to print my linked list I crash. My traversal works a treat when I do not create an array of nodes so I figure this snippit of code is my problem.

   typedef struct node {
book data;
struct node *next;
} *Node;

Node newNodes[100];
int i = 0;
for (i=0; i<n; i++) 
{
    newNodes[i] = (Node)malloc(sizeof(struct node)); 
    newNodes[i]->next = NULL;
    newNodes[i]->data.time = NULL;
    newNodes[i]->data.format = NULL;     
}


//return struct that holds the array;

Clearly I've done something wrong, insert_node is a really simple insert at front algorithm by the way. Can anyone see where I've gone wrong?

Answer 1

Can anyone see where I've gone wrong?

The posted code shows that you have created 100 pointers and assigned memory to them from the value returned by malloc . However, you haven't linked them up together to form a linked list.

Perhaps you meant to use:

for (i=0; i<n; i++) 
{
    newNodes[i] = (Node)malloc(sizeof(struct node)); 
    newNodes[i]->next = NULL;
    newNodes[i]->data.time = NULL;
    newNodes[i]->data.format = NULL;     
}

// Make the links between the nodes.
for (i=0; i<n-1; i++) 
{
   newNodes[i]->next = newNodes[i+1];
}

That will make newNodes[0] the head of the linked list.

PS

Using a typedef called Node that is a pointer is very confusing, at least to me. I would recommend using:

typedef struct node {
    book data;
    struct node *next;
} Node;

typedef Node* NodePtr;