I have been working on a project. Part of the project needs a shuffled linked list. This function is an implementation of the fisher-yates shuffling algorithm. It puts the linked list into an array. Then it shuffles it. Then relinks it.
After some testing I have found that sometimes when I shuffle a linked list, I lose a node somewhere. I have done some testing with ubsan and asan. They both show nothing. I used to have a issue with this function causing a segfault later on. The segfault was causing by not relinking the linked list correctly. More specifically the last node before shuffling in the linked list was not relinked correctly. I fixed that somewhat by making the list circular before shuffling it.
Here is the code used for shuffling along with the swap and relink functions:
linked_node* shuffle(linked_node* head) {
int count = 0;
linked_node* count_head = head;
while (count_head != NULL) {
count++;
count_head = count_head->next;
}
#ifdef DEBUG
fprintf(stderr, "count: %i\r\n", count);
#endif
linked_node** array = malloc(count * sizeof(linked_node*));
int i = 0;
linked_node* add_head = head;
for (i = 0; i < count; i++) {
array[i] = add_head;
add_head = add_head->next;
}
//made circluar to prevent segfault with the last node
array[count - 1]->next = head;
srand48(time(NULL));
for (int j = count - 1; j > 0; j--) {
int random = lrand48() % (j+1);
array_swap(&array[j], &array[random]);
}
for (int k = 0; k > count - 1; k++) {
relink(array[k], array[k + 1]);
}
linked_node* new_head = array[0];
//made circular for ease of use later
array[count - 1]->next = new_head;
free(array);
return new_head;
}
static inline void relink(linked_node* prev, linked_node* next) {
if (prev != NULL && next != NULL) {
prev->next = next;
}
}
void array_swap(linked_node** a, linked_node** b) {
linked_node* temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
}
There is a typo in this for loop
for (int k = 0; k > count - 1; k++) {
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
relink(array[k], array[k + 1]);
}
It seems you mean
for (int k = 0; k < count - 1; k++) {
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
relink(array[k], array[k + 1]);
}
Also this statement
//made circluar to prevent segfault with the last node
array[count - 1]->next = head;
is redundant and actually does not have an effect. Remove it.
This statement
//made circular for ease of use later
array[count - 1]->next = new_head;
could be substituted for this statement
array[count - 1]->next = NULL;