Thread: next pointer in linked list

Here is my code for a linked list.

LinkedList.h

Code:

#ifndef LINKEDLIST_H
#define LINKEDLIST_H

class LinkedList
{
    public:
        LinkedList();
        ~LinkedList();
        void createNode(char name[]);//creates a node at end of list
        void dump();//prints contents of all nodes

    private:
        unsigned int length;
        struct Node
        {
            char name[20];
            Node *next;
        };
        Node *startPointer;

};

#endif // LINKEDLIST_H

LinkedList.cpp

Code:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <string.h>
#include "..\include\LinkedList.h"

LinkedList::LinkedList() : length(0), startPointer(NULL)
{

}


LinkedList::~LinkedList()
{

}

void LinkedList::createNode(char name[])
{
    if(startPointer == NULL)
    {
        startPointer = new Node;//Node is a struct
        (*startPointer).next = NULL;
        strcpy((*startPointer).name, name);
      
    }
    else
    {
        Node *temp = startPointer;
        while((*temp).next != NULL)
            temp = (*temp).next;
        (*temp).next = new Node;
        temp = (*temp).next;
        strcpy((*temp).name, name);
        (*temp).next = NULL;
    }
}

void LinkedList::dump()
{
    Node *temp = startPointer;
    std::cout << (*temp).name << std::endl;
    while((*temp).next != NULL)
    {
        temp = (*temp).next;
        std::cout << (*temp).name << std::endl;
    }
}

In a previous thread it was mentioned that I could set the next pointer to null using the constructor of the struct. I found an example from this website

Code:

struct node
{
    node(int data_p) { data=data_p; next=0; }
    int data;
    node *next;
};

In my header file why can't I do this?

Code:

struct Node
        {
            char name[20];
            Node *next = null;
        };

What's so special about initializing the variables the first way?

What's the best way of doing this?