Thread: Help on Sorting a Linked List

Hi everyone!
I'm trying to develop a function to sort a linked list. I get no compiling errors, but when I run the program, my program stalls.

Can anyone help?

insert

Code:

struct node* Sort(struct node *head)
   {
      struct node *original, *current, *pointer, *newList;
      original = head;
      current = head;
      pointer = head;
      int smallest = current->data;
      int count = 0;
                
      pointer = head;
      for(current = head; current != head; current = current->next){
         for(pointer = head; pointer != head; pointer = pointer->next){
        
            if(pointer->data < smallest){
               smallest = pointer->data;
            }
         }     
         
         while (original->data != smallest){ // count where smallest is in the orignal link list
            original = original->next;
            count++;
         }        
           
         newList = AddToList(newList, smallest); // add the smallest value to newList
         RemoveFromList(head, count);	// remove the smallest value from the original list
			count = 0;   // reset count    
         smallest = current->data;	// smallest is now the next value in current
      } 
        return newList;	// return the newList
      }

I don't think you want to do this:

Code:

      for(current = head; current != head; current = current->next){
         for(pointer = head; pointer != head; pointer = pointer->next){

Those loops would never be entered.

How come?
I'm really puzzled on how to sort a linked list... :/

>>How come?
The for loop sets pointer = head; then does the logical test pointer != head; which is false. So the loop will exit immediately and the nested loop is skipped over because it is considered to be the body of the outer loop.

>>I'm really puzzled on how to sort a linked list... :/
It can be daunting the first time you write a sorting routine for it. There are web pages to help you understand it in a good way though. If you don't feel like writing a routine then you could always qsort an array of nodes and put the list back together. *shrug*

Take a look at here