Java Program For Reversing A Doubly Linked List

Last Updated : 18 Apr, 2023

Given a Doubly Linked List, the task is to reverse the given Doubly Linked List.

See below diagrams for example.

(a) Original Doubly Linked List

(b) Reversed Doubly Linked List

Here is a simple method for reversing a Doubly Linked List. All we need to do is swap prev and next pointers for all nodes, change prev of the head (or start) and change the head pointer in the end.

Java

// Java program to reverse a doubly 
// linked list
class LinkedList 
{
    static Node head;
    static class Node 
    {
        int data;
        Node next, prev;
        Node(int d)
        {
            data = d;
            next = prev = null;
        }
    }

    /* Function to reverse a Doubly 
       Linked List */
    void reverse()
    {
        Node temp = null;
        Node current = head;

        /* Swap next and prev for all nodes 
           of doubly linked list */
        while (current != null) 
        {
            temp = current.prev;
            current.prev = current.next;
            current.next = temp;
            current = current.prev;
        }

        /* Before changing head, check for the 
           cases like empty list and list with 
           only one node */
        if (temp != null) 
        {
            head = temp.prev;
        }
    }

    // UTILITY FUNCTIONS 
    /* Function to insert a node at the 
       beginning of the Doubly Linked List */
    void push(int new_data)
    {
        // Allocate node 
        Node new_node = new Node(new_data);

        /* Since we are adding at the beginning,
           prev is always NULL */
        new_node.prev = null;

        // Link the old list of the new node 
        new_node.next = head;

        /* Change prev of head node to 
           new node */
        if (head != null) {
            head.prev = new_node;
        }

        /* Move the head to point to the 
           new node */
        head = new_node;
    }

    /* Function to print nodes in a given 
       doubly linked list. This function is 
       same as printList() of singly linked
       list */
    void printList(Node node)
    {
        while (node != null) 
        {
            System.out.print(node.data + " ");
            node = node.next;
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        LinkedList list = new LinkedList();

        /* Let us create a sorted linked list 
           to test the functions Created linked 
           list will be 10->8->4->2 */
        list.push(2);
        list.push(4);
        list.push(8);
        list.push(10);

        System.out.println(
        "Original linked list ");
        list.printList(head);

        list.reverse();
        System.out.println("");
        System.out.println(
        "The reversed Linked List is ");
        list.printList(head);
    }
}
// This code is contributed by Mayank Jaiswal

Output:

Original linked list 
10 8 4 2 
The reversed Linked List is 
2 4 8 10

Time Complexity: O(N), where N denotes the number of nodes in the doubly linked list.
Auxiliary Space: O(1)
We can also swap data instead of pointers to reverse the Doubly Linked List. Method used for reversing array can be used to swap data. Swapping data can be costly compared to pointers if the size of the data item(s) is more.
Please write comments if you find any of the above codes/algorithms incorrect, or find better ways to solve the same problem.

Method 2:

The same question can also be done by using Stacks.

Steps:

Keep pushing the node's data in the stack. -> O(n)
The keep popping the elements out and updating the Doubly Linked List

Java

// Java program to reverse a doubly 
// linked list
import java.util.*;
class LinkedList 
{
    static Node head;

    static class Node 
    {
        int data;
        Node next, prev;

        Node(int d)
        {
            data = d;
            next = prev = null;
        }
    }

    /* Function to reverse a Doubly Linked 
       List using Stacks */
    void reverse()
    {
        Stack<Integer> stack = new Stack<>();
        Node temp = head;
        while (temp != null) 
        {
            stack.push(temp.data);
            temp = temp.next;
        }
        // Added all the elements sequence 
        // wise in the stack
        temp = head;
        while (temp != null) 
        {
            temp.data = stack.pop();
            temp = temp.next;
        }

        // Popped all the elements and the 
        // added in the linked list,
        // which are in the reversed order.
    }

    // UTILITY FUNCTIONS 
    /* Function to insert a node at the 
       beginning of the Doubly Linked List */
    void push(int new_data)
    {
        // Allocate node 
        Node new_node = new Node(new_data);

        /* Since we are adding at the beginning,
           prev is always NULL */
        new_node.prev = null;

        /* Link the old list of the new node */
        new_node.next = head;

        /* Change prev of head node to 
           new node */
        if (head != null) 
        {
            head.prev = new_node;
        }

        /* move the head to point to the new node */
        head = new_node;
    }

    /* Function to print nodes in a given doubly linked list
     This function is same as printList() of singly linked
     list */
    void printList(Node node)
    {
        while (node != null) {
            System.out.print(node.data + " ");
            node = node.next;
        }
    }

    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        LinkedList list = new LinkedList();

        /* Let us create a sorted linked list to test the
         functions Created linked list will be 10->8->4->2
       */
        list.push(2);
        list.push(4);
        list.push(8);
        list.push(10);

        System.out.println(
        "Original linked list ");
        list.printList(head);

        list.reverse();
        System.out.println("");
        System.out.println(
        "The reversed Linked List is ");
        list.printList(head);
    }
}
// This code is contributed by Rashita Mehta

Output:

Original linked list 
10 8 4 2 
The reversed Linked List is 
2 4 8 10

Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(N)

In this method, we traverse the linked list once and add elements to the stack, and again traverse the whole for updating all the elements. The whole takes 2n time, which is the time complexity of O(n).

Please refer complete article on Reverse a Doubly Linked List for more details!