How to detect a cycle in singly linked list?
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Before trying to remove the loop, we must detect it. Techniques discussed in the above post can be used to detect loop. To remove loop, all we need to do is to get pointer to the last node of the loop. For example, node with value 5 in the above diagram. Once we have pointer to the last node, we can make the next of this node as NULL and loop is gone.
We can easily use Hashing or Visited node techniques (discussed in the above mentioned post) to get the pointer to the last node. Idea is simple: the very first node whose next is already visited (or hashed) is the last node.
We can also use Floyd Cycle Detection algorithm to detect and remove the loop. In the Floyd’s algo, the slow and fast pointers meet at a loop node. We can use this loop node to remove cycle. There are following two different ways of removing loop when Floyd’s algorithm is used for Loop detection.
We can easily use Hashing or Visited node techniques (discussed in the above mentioned post) to get the pointer to the last node. Idea is simple: the very first node whose next is already visited (or hashed) is the last node.
We can also use Floyd Cycle Detection algorithm to detect and remove the loop. In the Floyd’s algo, the slow and fast pointers meet at a loop node. We can use this loop node to remove cycle. There are following two different ways of removing loop when Floyd’s algorithm is used for Loop detection.
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