Find Union and Intersection of two linked lists in Python
In this tutorial, we learn to find the Union and Intersection of two linked lists in Python. The difference between the two sets is converted to a third set with elements common to both sets. The union between two sets is with all the elements from both sets in the third set.

Intersection

Union
The program creates two linked lists and finds its union and intersections.
Algorithm
- Let’s get started by creating a node with instance data(integer type) and a next pointer.
- After that Create a node LinkList with instance variable head(pointer holding address of head)).
- Then, Create a function prev_node, dup(duplicate), ins_end(insert at the end), display, and remove.
- The prev_node() function returns the previous node by taking a reference node as an argument.
- The ins_end function inserts a node at the end of the list.
- The display function will traverse the whole list and print the data(value) of each node.
- Remove function deletes it from the list by taking the node as an argument.
- The duplicate method returns a copy of the list.
- Define the function remove_dup that passes duplicate elements from the list as arguments.
- find_union function takes two linked lists as an argument and returns the union.
- So in the end, create a function find_intersec that two linked list as an argument and return the intersection of them.
Python Program
Creating a class Node:
class Node: def __init__(self, data): self.data = data self.next = None
Now create a class linked list:
class LinkList: def __init__(self): self.head = None def get_prev_node(self, ref_node): current = self.head while (current and current.next != ref_node): current = current.next return current def duplicate(self): copy = LinkList() current = self.head while current: node = Node(current.data) copy.insert_at_end(node) current = current.next return copy def insert_at_end(self, new_node): if self.head is None: self.head = new_node else: current = self.head while current.next is not None: current = current.next current.next = new_node def remove(self, node): prev_node = self.get_prev_node(node) if prev_node is None: self.head = self.head.next else: prev_node.next = node.next def display(self): current = self.head while current: print(current.data, end = ' ') current = current.next
For intersections, we need to remove some remaining elements from the linked list, so we need to create a function to do this.
def remove_duplicates(llist): current1 = llist.head while current1: current2 = current1.next data = current1.data while current2: temp = current2 current2 = current2.next if temp.data == data: llist.remove(temp) current1 = current1.next
So, till now we had formed the basis for our program, now we have to create a function union and intersection.
def find_union(llist1, llist2): if llist1.head is None: union = llist2.duplicate() remove_duplicates(union) return union if llist2.head is None: union = llist1.duplicate() remove_duplicates(union) return union union = llist1.duplicate() last_node = union.head while last_node.next is not None: last_node = last_node.next llist2_copy = llist2.duplicate() last_node.next = llist2_copy.head remove_duplicates(union) return union def find_intersection(llist1, llist2): if (llist1.head is None or llist2.head is None): return LinkList() intersection = LinkList() current1 = llist1.head while current1: current2 = llist2.head data = current1.data while current2: if current2.data == data: node = Node(data) intersection.insert_at_end(node) break current2 = current2.next current1 = current1.next remove_duplicates(intersection) return intersection
We have created all the important classes and functions for our task, so now we have to call all those functions and classes from “main”.
a_llist1 = LinkList() a_llist2 = LinkList() data_list = input('Enter the elements of 1st linked list: ').split() for data in data_list: node = Node(int(data)) a_llist1.insert_at_end(node) data_list = input('Enter the elements of 2nd linked list: ').split() for data in data_list: node = Node(int(data)) a_llist2.insert_at_end(node) union = find_union(a_llist1, a_llist2) intersection = find_intersection(a_llist1, a_llist2) print('Their union will be: ') union.display() print() print('Their intersection will be: ') intersection.display() print()
Enter the elements of 1st linked list: 1 2 4 5 4 5 Enter the elements of 2nd linked list: 6 5 1 3 Their union will be: 1 2 4 5 6 3 Their intersection will be: 1 5
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