Difficulty understanding linked list implementation (the struct part)?

Question

struct node
{ 
    int data;
    struct node *next;
}*start;

I don't understand what struct node *next does, I know it points to the address of the next variable; but how as in implementation? Is node *next similar to struct node *next?

And what about the *start is it similar to struct node *start?

I am finding very difficulty understanding linked lists implementation.

Answer 1

I don't understand what struct node *next does, I know it points to the address of the next variable; ...

This is correct.

... but how as in implementation ?

The implementation is pretty much exactly how you described the behaviour: A pointer is implemented as an object whose value is the memory address of the pointed object.

Is node *next similar to struct node *next?

Not only similar, but pretty much identical.^†

---

And what about the *start is it similar to struct node *start?

It is struct node *start. See the complete declaration:

struct node /* structure definition */ *start;

It is a combined declaration of a variable, and definition of a structure.

---

† The struct keyword is just used to disambiguate that the following identifier is in the name space^†† of structure tags. In your case it is redundant, because there are no non-structure identifier Node to disambiguate, and in C++ structure tags are also type names.

What you're probably looking at is C code, where the name space^†† specifier is mandatory for structure tags.

†† In this context, I refer to C name spaces, not C++ name spaces.