Often, due to the data structure, nodes may only be linked to from a single other node. This makes it very important to consider how you implement modifying or removing nodes from a data structure.
If you inadvertently remove the single link to a node, that node’s data and any linked nodes could be “lost” to your application. When this happens to a node, it is called an orphaned node.
Examine the nodes in the diagram. node_c
is only linked to by node_b
. If you would like to remove node_b
but not node_c
, you can’t simply delete the link from node_a
to node_b
.
The most straightforward method to preserve node_c
would be to change the link in node_a
to point to node_c
instead of node_b
. However, some data structures may handle this in a different manner.
Instructions
Is it necessary to “delete” node_b
if we change node_a
to reference node_c
instead?