Definition: A variant of a linked list in which each item has a link to the previous item as well as the next. This allows easily accessing list items backward as well as forward and deleting any item in constant time.
Also known as two-way linked list, symmetrically linked list.
See also jump list.
Note: See [Stand98, p. 91].
Binary search may be effective with an ordered, doubly linked list. It makes O(n) traversals, as does linear search, but it only performs O(log n) comparisons. For more explanation, see Tim Rolfe's Searching in a Sorted Linked List.
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Entry modified 1 October 2019.
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Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "doubly linked list", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed. 1 October 2019. (accessed TODAY) Available from: https://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/doublyLinkedList.html