a way of organizing data items in a computer so that they are retrievable in a particular order that is not necessarily the same order as the physical locations in which they are stored. Each data item consists of two parts: the data itself, and a number giving the location of the next item. Figure 156 shows how this is usually diagrammed. To read the items in order, you need only know which item is in the beginning (the head) of the list; having located it, you can go next to the item whose address was stored with it; and so on.
Figure 159 shows away to construct a linked list in an ordinary twodimensional array; this can be done in practically any programming language. Each row of the array contains a data item and an integer indicating which row the next item is on (or zero, to indicate that there are more items). In the example, it is assumed that the first item in the list will always be in row 1; if you wish to be able to delete the first item, you can use a separate integer, outside the array, to keep track of where the list starts.
