Applications of Circular Linked Lists
- Useful for implementation of a queue. Unlike this implementation, we don’t need to maintain two-pointers for the front and rear if we use a circular linked list. We can maintain a pointer to the last inserted node and the front can always be obtained as next of last.
- Circular lists are useful in applications to go around the list repeatedly. For example, when multiple applications are running on a PC, it is common for the operating system to put the running applications on a list and then cycle through them, giving each of them a slice of time to execute, and then making them wait while the CPU is given to another application. It is convenient for the operating system to use a circular list so that when it reaches the end of the list it can cycle around to the front of the list.
- Circular Doubly Linked Lists are used for the implementation of advanced data structures like the Fibonacci Heap.
- Circular linked lists can be used to implement circular queues, which are often used in operating systems for scheduling processes and managing memory allocation.
- Used in database systems to implement linked data structures, such as B+ trees, which are used to optimize the storage and retrieval of data.
- Circular linked lists can be used in networking. For instance, to implement circular buffers for streaming data, such as video and audio, in networking applications.
- Video games use circular linked lists to manage sprite animations. Each frame of the animation is represented as a node in the list, and the last frame is connected to the first frame to create a loop.
- Circular linked lists can be used to represent a buffer of audio or signal data in signal processing applications. The last node is connected to the first node to create a loop, and the processing algorithms can efficiently iterate over the data.
- Traffic light control systems use circular linked lists to manage the traffic light cycles. Each phase of the traffic light cycle is represented as a node in the list, and the last node is connected to the first node to create a loop.
Applications of linked list data structure
A linked list is a linear data structure, in which the elements are not stored at contiguous memory locations. The elements in a linked list are linked using pointers as shown in the below image: