Linked List Delete Method

Question

Could anyone explain why the following delete method does not work? It appears to create an infinite loop at the value I am trying to remove. It should loop through a linked list, delete all instances of the value passed to the method, and return the total number of nodes deleted ( return num; ).

public int delete(T value) 
{
    int num = 0;
    ListNode<T> trav = head;
    ListNode<T> next = head.getNext();

    while(trav != null) {
      if(trav.getValue().compareTo(value) == 0) {
        trav = next;            
        num++;
      }
      if(next.getValue().compareTo(value) == 0) {
        trav = next.getNext();
        num++;
      }
      trav = trav.getNext();
    }   

    return num; 
}

Answer 1

You never change the value of next .

  if(trav.getValue().compareTo(value) == 0) {
    trav = next;            
    num++;
  }
  if(next.getValue().compareTo(value) == 0) {
    trav = next.getNext();
    num++;
  }

Since next never changes, you're comparing the same value in the second if every time.