A linked list is a linear data structure that consists of a sequence of elements, where each element points to the next element in the list. In simple terms, each element of a linked list contains two fields: the actual data and a reference (or a link) to the next node.

The diagram below illustrates a simple linked list with three nodes:

1  first        second        third
2+-------+   +-------+   +-------+
3| data  |   | data  |   | data  |
4| next ------> next ------> NULL |
5+-------+   +-------+   +-------+

In the code snippet provided, we define a Node class that represents a single node in the linked list. Each Node object contains an int field data to store the actual data and a pointer next to refer to the next node.

To create a linked list, we create three Node objects named first, second, and third. We assign the data values to each node and establish the connections between them by setting the next pointers. Finally, we print the contents of the linked list using the printLinkedList function.

Feel free to modify the code and experiment with different data values and linkages. Remember to always deallocate the memory dynamically allocated for the nodes using the delete keyword to prevent memory leaks.

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#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

​

// Node class

class Node {

public:

  int data;

  Node* next;

};

​

// Function to print a linked list

void printLinkedList(Node* head) {

  Node* temp = head;

  while (temp != nullptr) {

    cout << temp->data << " ";

    temp = temp->next;

  }

  cout << endl;

}

​

int main() {

  // Create the nodes

  Node* first = new Node();

  Node* second = new Node();

  Node* third = new Node();

​

  // Assign data to the nodes

  first->data = 1;

  second->data = 2;