4.intersection-of-two-linked-lists.md

Intersection of Two Linked Lists

Write a program to find the node at which the intersection of two singly linked lists begins.

For example, the following two linked lists:

A:          a1 → a2
                   ↘
                     c1 → c2 → c3
                   ↗            
B:     b1 → b2 → b3

begin to intersect at node c1.

Notes:

• If the two linked lists have no intersection at all, return null.
• The linked lists must retain their original structure after the function returns.
• You may assume there are no cycles anywhere in the entire linked structure.
• Your code should preferably run in O(n) time and use only O(1) memory.

JavaScript

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * function ListNode(val) {
 *     this.val = val;
 *     this.next = null;
 * }
 */

/**
 * @param {ListNode} headA
 * @param {ListNode} headB
 * @return {ListNode}
 */
var getIntersectionNode = function(headA, headB) {
       if (!headA || !headB) return null;
    var p1 = headA;
    var p2 = headB;
    while (p1 && p2 && p1 !== p2) {
        p1 = p1.next;
        p2 = p2.next;
        
        if (p1 == p2) return p1;
        if (!p1) p1 = headB;
        if (!p2) p2 = headA;
    }
    return p1;
};