Interview Question: Merge two sorted singly linked lists without creating new nodes

Question

This is a programming question asked during a written test for an interview. \"You have two singly linked lists that are already sorted, you have to merge them and return a

Answer 1

Node mergeList(Node h1, Node h2) {
    if (h1 == null) return h2;
    if (h2 == null) return h1;
    Node head;
    if (h1.data < h2.data) {
        head = h1;
    } else {
        head = h2;
        h2 = h1;
        h1 = head;
    }

    while (h1.next != null && h2 != null) {
        if (h1.next.data < h2.data) {
            h1 = h1.next;
        } else {
            Node afterh2 = h2.next;
            Node afterh1 = h1.next;
            h1.next = h2;
            h2.next = afterh1;

            if (h2.next != null) {
                h2 = afterh2;
            }
        }
    }
    return head;
}

Answer 2

This could be done without creating the extra node, with just an another Node reference passing to the parameters (Node temp).

private static Node mergeTwoLists(Node nodeList1, Node nodeList2, Node temp) {
    if(nodeList1 == null) return nodeList2;
    if(nodeList2 == null) return nodeList1;

    if(nodeList1.data <= nodeList2.data){
        temp = nodeList1;
        temp.next = mergeTwoLists(nodeList1.next, nodeList2, temp);
    }
    else{
        temp = nodeList2;
        temp.next = mergeTwoLists(nodeList1, nodeList2.next, temp);
    }
    return temp;
}

Answer 3

Node * merge_sort(Node *a, Node *b){
   Node *result = NULL;
   if(a ==  NULL)
      return b;
   else if(b == NULL)
      return a;

  /* For the first node, we would set the result to either a or b */
    if(a->data <= b->data){
       result = a;
    /* Result's next will point to smaller one in lists 
       starting at a->next  and b */
      result->next = merge_sort(a->next,b);
    }
    else {
      result = b;
     /*Result's next will point to smaller one in lists 
       starting at a and b->next */
       result->next = merge_sort(a,b->next);
    }
    return result;
 }

Please refer to my blog post for http://www.algorithmsandme.com/2013/10/linked-list-merge-two-sorted-linked.html

Answer 4

I created only one dummy node at the beginning to save myself many 'if' conditions.

    public ListNode mergeTwoLists(ListNode l1, ListNode l2) {

        ListNode list1Cursor = l1;
        ListNode list2Cursor = l2;

        ListNode currentNode = new ListNode(-1); // Dummy node
        ListNode head = currentNode;

        while (list1Cursor != null && list2Cursor != null)
        {
            if (list1Cursor.val < list2Cursor.val) {
                currentNode.next = list1Cursor;
                list1Cursor = list1Cursor.next;
                currentNode = currentNode.next;
            } else {
                currentNode.next = list2Cursor;
                list2Cursor = list2Cursor.next;
                currentNode = currentNode.next;
            }
        }

        // Complete the rest
        while (list1Cursor != null) {
            currentNode.next = list1Cursor;
            currentNode = currentNode.next;
            list1Cursor = list1Cursor.next;
        }
        while (list2Cursor != null) {
            currentNode.next = list2Cursor;
            currentNode = currentNode.next;
            list2Cursor = list2Cursor.next;
        }

        return head.next;
    }

Answer 5

Node MergeLists(Node list1, Node list2) {
  if (list1 == null) return list2;
  if (list2 == null) return list1;

  if (list1.data < list2.data) {
    list1.next = MergeLists(list1.next, list2);
    return list1;
  } else {
    list2.next = MergeLists(list2.next, list1);
    return list2;
  }
}

Answer 6

Recursive way(variant of Stefan answer)

 MergeList(Node nodeA, Node nodeB ){
        if(nodeA==null){return nodeB};
        if(nodeB==null){return nodeA};

    if(nodeB.data<nodeA.data){
        Node returnNode = MergeNode(nodeA,nodeB.next);
        nodeB.next = returnNode;
        retturn nodeB;
    }else{
        Node returnNode = MergeNode(nodeA.next,nodeB);
        nodeA.next=returnNode;
        return nodeA;
    }

Consider below linked list to visualize this

2>4 list A 1>3 list B

Almost same answer(non recursive) as Stefan but with little more comments/meaningful variable name. Also covered double linked list in comments if someone is interested

Consider the example

5->10->15>21 // List1

2->3->6->20 //List2

Node MergeLists(List list1, List list2) {
  if (list1 == null) return list2;
  if (list2 == null) return list1;

if(list1.head.data>list2.head.data){
  listB =list2; // loop over this list as its head is smaller
  listA =list1;
} else {
  listA =list2; // loop over this list
  listB =list1;
}


listB.currentNode=listB.head;
listA.currentNode=listA.head;

while(listB.currentNode!=null){

  if(listB.currentNode.data<listA.currentNode.data){
    Node insertFromNode = listB.currentNode.prev; 
    Node startingNode = listA.currentNode;
    Node temp = inserFromNode.next;
    inserFromNode.next = startingNode;
    startingNode.next=temp;

    startingNode.next.prev= startingNode; // for doubly linked list
    startingNode.prev=inserFromNode;  // for doubly linked list


    listB.currentNode= listB.currentNode.next;
    listA.currentNode= listA.currentNode.next;

  } 
  else
  {
    listB.currentNode= listB.currentNode.next;

  }

}