Is a Linked-List implementation without using pointers possible or not?

Question

My question is very simple, can one using C++, implement a link-list data structure without using pointers (next nodes)? To further qualify my question, I\'m mean can one cr

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible. Use array indexes instead of pointers.

Answer 2

From Wikipedia:

In computer science, a linked list is a data structure that consists of a sequence of data records such that in each record there is a field that contains a reference (i.e., a link) to the next record in the sequence.

Nothing in that definition specifies the manner in which the reference is stored or used. If you don't store a reference, it isn't a linked list -- it's something else.

If your goal is merely to avoid using a pointer (or object reference), then using a vector with an index is a common implementation. (One of the reasons for using the vector/index implementation is persistence: it's really hard to correctly persist pointers / object references outside of the active memory space.)