Discussion 8: Linked Lists
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Getting Started
Everybody say your name and your birthday and then tell the group about your favorite birthday party you've attended (either for your birthday or someone else's).
Pro tip: Groups tend not to ask for help unless they've been stuck for a looooooong time. Try asking for help sooner. We're pretty helpful! You might learn something.
Linked Lists
A linked list is a Link
object or Link.empty
.
You can mutate a Link
object s
in two ways:
- Change the first element with
s.first = ...
- Change the rest of the elements with
s.rest = ...
You can make a new Link
object by calling Link
:
Link(4)
makes a linked list of length 1 containing 4.Link(4, s)
makes a linked list that starts with 4 followed by the elements of linked lists
.
class Link:
"""A linked list is either a Link object or Link.empty
>>> s = Link(3, Link(4, Link(5)))
>>> s.rest
Link(4, Link(5))
>>> s.rest.rest.rest is Link.empty
True
>>> s.rest.first * 2
8
>>> print(s)
<3 4 5>
"""
empty = ()
def __init__(self, first, rest=empty):
assert rest is Link.empty or isinstance(rest, Link)
self.first = first
self.rest = rest
def __repr__(self):
if self.rest:
rest_repr = ', ' + repr(self.rest)
else:
rest_repr = ''
return 'Link(' + repr(self.first) + rest_repr + ')'
def __str__(self):
string = '<'
while self.rest is not Link.empty:
string += str(self.first) + ' '
self = self.rest
return string + str(self.first) + '>'
Drawing Time. Pick a way for your group to draw diagrams. Paper, a whiteboard, or a tablet, are all fine. If you don't have anything like that, ask another group in the room if they have extra paper.
Q1: Sum Two Ways
Implement both sum_rec
and sum_iter
. Each one takes a linked list of numbers
s
and a non-negative integer k
and returns the sum of the first k
elements
of s
. If there are fewer than k
elements in s
, all of them are summed. If
k
is 0 or s
is empty, the sum is 0.
Use recursion to implement sum_rec
. Don't use recursion to implement
sum_iter
; use a while
loop instead.
def sum_rec(s, k):
"""Return the sum of the first k elements in s.
>>> a = Link(1, Link(6, Link(8)))
>>> sum_rec(a, 2)
7
>>> sum_rec(a, 5)
15
>>> sum_rec(Link.empty, 1)
0
"""
# Use a recursive call to sum_rec; don't call sum_iter
if k == 0 or s is Link.empty:
return 0
return s.first + sum_rec(s.rest, k - 1)
def sum_iter(s, k):
"""Return the sum of the first k elements in s.
>>> a = Link(1, Link(6, Link(8)))
>>> sum_iter(a, 2)
7
>>> sum_iter(a, 5)
15
>>> sum_iter(Link.empty, 1)
0
"""
# Don't call sum_rec or sum_iter
total = 0
while k > 0 and s is not Link.empty:
total, s, k = total + s.first, s.rest, k - 1
return total
s.first
to the sum of the first k-1
elements in s.rest
. Your base case
condition should include s is Link.empty
so that you're checking whether s
is empty before ever evaluating s.first
or s.rest
.
total
, then repeatedly (in a while
loop) add
s.first
to total
, set s = s.rest
to advance through the linked list, and reduce k
by one.
Discussion time: When adding up numbers, the intermediate sums depend on the
order. (1 + 3) + 5
and 1 + (3 + 5)
both equal 9, but the first one makes 4
along the way while the second makes 8 along the way. For the same linked list
s
and length k
, will sum_rec
and sum_iter
both make the same
intermediate sums along the way?
Q2: Overlap
Implement overlap
, which takes two linked lists of numbers called s
and t
that are sorted in increasing order and have no repeated elements within each
list. It returns the count of how many numbers appear in both lists.
This can be done in linear time in the combined length of s
and t
by
always advancing forward in the linked list whose first element is smallest
until both first elements are equal (add one to the count and advance both) or
one list is empty (time to return). Here's a
lecture video clip
about this (but the video uses Python lists instead of linked lists).
Take a vote to decide whether to use recursion or iteration. Either way works (and the solutions are about the same complexity/difficulty).
Your Answer Run in 61A Codedef overlap(s, t):
"""For increasing s and t, count the numbers that appear in both.
>>> a = Link(3, Link(4, Link(6, Link(7, Link(9, Link(10))))))
>>> b = Link(1, Link(3, Link(5, Link(7, Link(8)))))
>>> overlap(a, b) # 3 and 7
2
>>> overlap(a.rest, b) # just 7
1
>>> overlap(Link(0, a), Link(0, b))
3
"""
if s is Link.empty or t is Link.empty:
return 0
if s.first == t.first:
return 1 + overlap(s.rest, t.rest)
elif s.first < t.first:
return overlap(s.rest, t)
elif s.first > t.first:
return overlap(s, t.rest)
def overlap_iterative(s, t):
"""For increasing s and t, count the numbers that appear in both.
>>> a = Link(3, Link(4, Link(6, Link(7, Link(9, Link(10))))))
>>> b = Link(1, Link(3, Link(5, Link(7, Link(8)))))
>>> overlap(a, b) # 3 and 7
2
>>> overlap(a.rest, b) # just 7
1
>>> overlap(Link(0, a), Link(0, b))
3
"""
res = 0
while s is not Link.empty and t is not Link.empty:
if s.first == t.first:
res += 1
s = s.rest
t = t.rest
elif s.first < t.first:
s = s.rest
else:
t = t.rest
return res
if s is Link.empty or t is Link.empty:
return 0
if s.first == t.first:
return __________________
elif s.first < t.first:
return __________________
elif s.first > t.first:
return __________________
k = 0
while s is not Link.empty and t is not Link.empty:
if s.first == t.first:
__________________
elif s.first < t.first:
__________________
elif s.first > t.first:
__________________
return k
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