Removing Duplicates from a List

Procedure to remove duplicate nodes from a linked list.

Procedure :

  • Traverse the list until the next node is not NULL.
  • If the data of current node and next node is the same, change the next of current node to next of next node and delete the next node.
  • Else, move the current node to next of current node.
void removeDuplicates(struct node *ptr) {
while (ptr -> next != NULL) {
// If data of the two nodes are same
if (ptr -> data == ptr -> next -> data) {
// Pointer for the node to be deleted
struct node *toDelete = ptr -> next;
// Replace the links
ptr -> next = toDelete -> next;
// Deallocate the memory
free(toDelete);
}
// IMPORTANT : Advance only if no deletion
else {
ptr = ptr -> next;
}
}
}
Contributed by Nitin Ranganath