How to find nth element from the end of a singly linked list?

Question

The following function is trying to find the nth to last element of a singly linked list.

For example:

If the elements are

Answer 1

Here is the code using 2 pointer approach : ( source )

Slow and Faster pointer approach

struct node
{
  int data;
  struct node *next;
}mynode;


mynode * nthNodeFrmEnd(mynode *head, int n /*pass 0 for last node*/)
{
  mynode *ptr1,*ptr2;
  int count;

  if(!head)
  {
    return(NULL);
  }

  ptr1  = head;
  ptr2  = head;
  count = 0;

  while(count < n)
  {
     count++;
     if((ptr1=ptr1->next)==NULL)
     {
        //Length of the linked list less than n. Error.
        return(NULL);
     }
  }

  while((ptr1=ptr1->next)!=NULL)
  {
    ptr2=ptr2->next;
  }

  return(ptr2);
}

Recursion

node* findNthNode (node* head, int find, int& found){
    if(!head) {
        found = 1;
        return 0;
    }
    node* retval = findNthNode(head->next, find, found);
    if(found==find)
        retval = head;
    found = found + 1;
    return retval;
}

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