Finding a Loop in a Linked List

Ladies, your mission is simple yet dangerous. The enemy is upon us … maybe. We have been handed a linked list. It is claimed it does not loop. But if we are to send in our troops, we better darn well make sure. Assumption is the mother of all, remember!?! It is your job to find a simple algorithm to check this linked list on loops. Ladies, O(n²) will not suffice. (Seriously, try it before reading on. Hint, the photo on the left shows Bob Floyd rendered using Floyd-Steinberg dithering.)

int has_loop(node_t slow)
{ node_t fast1, fast2 = slow; if (!slow) return 0; /* No list, no loop. */ while (fast1 = fast2->next && fast2 = fast1->next) { if (slow == fast1 || slow == fast2) break; slow = slow->next; } return slow == fast1 || slow == fast2; }

This solution is Floyd’s Cycle-Finding Algorithm as published in Non-deterministic Algorithms by Robert W. Floyd in 1967. It is also called The Tortoise and the Hare Algorithm. (Stephen Ostermiller) [Finding a Loop in a Singly Linked List]

Trivia: Actually this solution is not published in the above mentioned article [pdf], apparently Donald Knuth credits Floyd for the algorithm, but without citation. Since nobody influenced Knuth more than Bob Floyd [pdf], they might have simply discussed it and Knuth put it in The Art of Computer Programming II.


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