An algorithm for sorting a linked list in javascript.

We will implement the insertion sort algorithm with linked list to sort the list in ascending or descending order.

Example

Input: 10 -> 5 -> 22 -> 3 -> 17 -> 10 Output: 3 -> 5 -> 10 -> 10 -> 17 -> 22

Implementation for sorting a linked list

We will use a temporary node to sort the linked list.

We will create two functions. First, which will iterate the list and Second, which will sort the elements till the given element of the first loop.

The implementation is same as we do the insertion sort for arrays, the only thing here is we will be using one extra node which will help us to swap the list.

//Node class class Node{ constructor(elm, next = null){ this.element = elm; this.next = next; } } //Main function let insertionSort = (head) => { let result = null; let current = head; let next; //Iterate the loop while(current !== null){ next = current.next; //Sort the linked list till the current element and store it result = sortedInsert(result, current); current = next; } //Return the sorted list return result; } //Function to sort the list let sortedInsert = (sorted, newNode) => { //Temporary node to swap the elements let temp = new Node(); let current = temp; temp.next = sorted; //Sort the list based on the specified order while(current.next !== null && current.next.element < newNode.element){ current = current.next; } //Swap the elements newNode.next = current.next; current.next = newNode; //Return the sorted list. return temp.next; }

Input: let ll = new LinkedList(); ll.append(10); ll.append(5); ll.append(22); ll.append(3); ll.append(17); ll.append(10); //Get the head let toSort = ll.getHead(); //Sort the list let sorted = insertionSort(toSort); //Print the sorted list while(sorted !== null){ console.log(sorted.element); sorted = sorted.next; } Output: 3 5 10 10 17 22

Time complexity: O(n ^ 2).

Space complexity: O(1).

Time and Space complexity