You shouldn't be using "sentinel nodes"; this is pointless and very confusing. A queue can be simply represented as a QNode*
to the first element. It always points to the first element; if it's NULL
, the queue is empty; if element->next
is NULL
, it's the last element because there isn't a next one. It's very simple to work with that.
struct QueueNode {
// stuff
// stuff
// stuff
struct QueueNode* prev; // this may be optional
struct QueueNode* next;
};
typedef struct QueueNode QNode;
void push_front(QNode** queue, QNode* pushme) {
pushme->prev = NULL;
pushme->next = *queue;
(*queue)->prev = pushme;
*queue = pushme;
}
void push_end(QNode** queue, QNode* pushme) {
QNode* node = *queue;
if (node) {
while (node->next) node = node->next;
node->next = pushme;
pushme->prev = node;
pushme->next = NULL;
}
else {
*queue = pushme;
(*queue)->next = (*queue)->prev = NULL;
}
}
QNode* pop_front(QNode** queue) {
QNode* node = *queue;
if (node)
*queue = node->next;
return node;
}
QNode* pop_end(QNode** queue) {
QNode* node = *queue;
if (node) {
while (node->next) node = node->next;
if (node->prev) {
node->prev->next = NULL;
node->prev = NULL;
}
else
*queue = NULL;
}
return node;
}
QNode* create_node_front(QNode** queue) {
QNode* node = malloc(sizeof(QNode));
push_front(queue, node);
return node;
}
QNode* create_node_end(QNode** queue) {
QNode* node = malloc(sizeof(QNode));
push_end(queue, node);
return node;
}
QNode* my_queue = NULL; // declare an empty queue
QNode* my_node = create_node_end(&my_queue); // create a new node, its already stored in the queue
I didn't test it, but it gives a general idea.
You can push with push_front()
or create_node_front()
(no loops, best performance) then pop with pop_end()
to have a queue effect (FIFO), or pop with pop_front()
to have a stack effect (LIFO).