Deleting Node in Linked List C++

Question

So I've been searching forums, but im still very new to the language and linked lists so I can barely decipher the results.

basically I made a delete function for my linked list. I can currently Create a list, traverse the list, sort the list, search the list, and insert before any node in the linked list. I recycled some code from the insert to locate the point in the list where I could delete. My main point of confusion is how to link the previous points to the node that is after the one I am deleting.

Answer 1

I won't write a whole new linked list implementation but i can point out some of the problems with the code for you.

The trick is to stay one node ahead of the one you want to delete.

I have renamed entry to current for clarity

nodetype *current , *first, *next;
int akey;

// With this line your search will start from the second element.
// current =start->ptr;
// Should be
current = start;

// this is not needed. I am assuming the last node has NULL value for '->ptr'
// last=start;
next = current->ptr;

cout<<"Input Data You Would Like To Delete"<<endl;
cin>>akey;

// Check if the first node contains the data
// Assuming the list will have at least one element. i.e. current is not NULL 
while (current->adata == akey)
{
  // Delete it.
  delete current;
  // Update current for the while loop
  current = next;
  // update next too.
  next = current->ptr;
}
// Now we know the first element doesn't contain the data.
// Update the pointer to the begging of the new list if anything is removed from the top.
first = current;

// This has unnecessary checks. 
// ****Specifically (akey!=current->adata) will 
// prevent you from entering the loop if it is false.
// while((akey!=current->adata)&&(current->ptr !=NULL))
while(next != NULL)  // This should be enough
{
     if(next->adata == akey)
     {
          // make the current node (before the 'deletion point') 
          // lined to the one after the 'deletion point (next of the next)
          current->ptr = next->ptr; 
          // delete the node. 
          delete next;
          // Make the next pointer point to the new next. 
          next = current->ptr
     }
    // Otherwise advance both current and next.
     else {
           current = next;
           next = next->ptr; 
     }
}

// Use this to test it.
current = first;
while(current){
    cout<<current->adata<<", ";
    current = current->ptr;
}

This is not the cleanest way. However it is similar to your implementation so you can see where you went wrong.