Push Using Linked List Node in DSA C - Build from Scratch

Push Using Linked List Node

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple stack using a linked list in C. A stack is like a pile of plates where you add new plates on top. Here, each plate is a node in the linked list.

🎯 Goal: Build a linked list stack and add a new node to the top using the push operation.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a struct called Node with an int data and a Node* next pointer.

Create a pointer called top to represent the top of the stack and initialize it to NULL.

Create a new node with data = 10 and push it onto the stack by updating top.

Print the data of the top node after the push operation.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Stacks are used in many programs like undo features, expression evaluation, and backtracking algorithms.

💼 Career

Understanding linked list operations like push is essential for software developers working with low-level data structures and memory management.

1

Create the Node struct and initialize the top pointer

Write the struct definition for Node with an int data and a Node* next. Then create a pointer called top and set it to NULL.

DSA C

struct Node {
    int data;
    struct Node* next;
};

struct Node* top = NULL;
// Your code here

Hint

Use struct Node to define the node. Initialize top as a pointer to Node and set it to NULL.

2

Create a new node with data 10

Create a new Node pointer called newNode. Allocate memory for it using malloc. Set its data to 10 and its next to NULL.

DSA C

struct Node {
    int data;
    struct Node* next;
};

struct Node* top = NULL;

// Create newNode and set data to 10
// Your code here

Hint

Use malloc(sizeof(struct Node)) to allocate memory. Use arrow -> to set data and next.

3

Push the new node onto the stack

Set the next of newNode to the current top. Then update top to point to newNode.

DSA C

struct Node {
    int data;
    struct Node* next;
};

struct Node* top = NULL;

struct Node* newNode = (struct Node*)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));
newNode->data = 10;
newNode->next = NULL;

// Push newNode onto stack
// Your code here

Hint

To push, link newNode->next to top and then update top to newNode.

4

Print the data of the top node

Use printf to print the data of the top node in this format: Top data: 10\n.

DSA C

struct Node {
    int data;
    struct Node* next;
};

struct Node* top = NULL;

struct Node* newNode = (struct Node*)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));
newNode->data = 10;
newNode->next = NULL;

newNode->next = top;
top = newNode;

// Print top node data
// Your code here

Hint

Use printf("Top data: %d\n", top->data); to print the data of the top node.