The typical Node structure in C++

The next couple of posts are going to require the use of a node object. I’ve seen people make the node way more complicating then it should be as a class. The point of a node is to hold data and be aware of it’s neighbors. All you really need is a simple struct.

In the instance of a stack or list, a node just really needs to know who’s next after them. Note in the code below, to create a node, I need some data passed in, that’s it. It’s up to the coder to set the next pointer in their code that is utilizing the node.

struct Node
{
    int data;
    Node* next;

    Node(int d){
        data = d;
        next = nullptr;
    }
};

When we start looking at linked lists and binary search trees, we might consider a struct that is aware of the nodes on both sides of it. Again, it is up to the code using the node structure to set the left and right pointers to the right node neighbors.

struct Node
{
    int data;
    Node* left;
    Node* right;

    Node(int d){
        data = d;
        left = nullptr;
        right = nullptr;
    }
};

Pretty dang simple!