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

A simple iterative solution.

Node* MergeLists(Node* A, Node* B)
{
    //handling the corner cases

    //if both lists are empty
    if(!A && !B)
    {
        cout << "List is empty" << endl;
        return 0;
    }
    //either of list is empty
    else if(!A) return B;
    else if(!B) return A;
    else
    {
        Node* head = NULL;//this will be the head of the newList
        Node* previous = NULL;//this will act as the

        /* In this algorithm we will keep the
         previous pointer that will point to the last node of the output list.
         And, as given we have A & B as pointer to the given lists.

         The algorithm will keep on going untill either one of the list become empty.
         Inside of the while loop, it will divide the algorithm in two parts:
            - First, if the head of the output list is not obtained yet
            - Second, if head is already there then we will just compare the values and keep appending to the 'previous' pointer.
         When one of the list become empty we will append the other 'left over' list to the output list.
         */
         while(A && B)
         {
             if(!head)
             {
                 if(A->data <= B->data)
                 {
                     head = A;//setting head of the output list to A
                     previous = A; //initializing previous
                     A = A->next;
                 }
                 else
                 {
                     head = B;//setting head of the output list to B
                     previous = B;//initializing previous
                     B = B->next;
                 }
             }
             else//when head is already set
             {
                 if(A->data <= B->data)
                 {
                     if(previous->next != A)
                         previous->next = A;
                     A = A->next;//Moved A forward but keeping B at the same position
                 }
                 else
                 {
                     if(previous->next != B)
                         previous->next = B;
                     B = B->next; //Moved B forward but keeping A at the same position
                 }
                 previous = previous->next;//Moving the Output list pointer forward
             }
         }
        //at the end either one of the list would finish
        //and we have to append the other list to the output list
        if(!A)
            previous->next = B;

        if(!B)
            previous->next = A;

        return head; //returning the head of the output list
    }
}