Traversal

Traversal means visiting every node in the list exactly once, starting from the head and following next pointers until NULL is reached.

The Core Pattern

Node* temp = head;       // start at head
while (temp != NULL) {   // loop until end
    // process temp->data
    temp = temp->next;   // move forward
}

What can you do during traversal?

Goal	Action per node
Print all values	`printf("%d", temp->data)`
Count nodes	`count++`
Find max value	`if (temp->data > max) max = temp->data`
Search for a value	`if (temp->data == key) return temp`
Sum all values	`sum += temp->data`

Time & Space

Time: O(N) — must visit all N nodes
Space: O(1) — only uses one extra pointer (temp), regardless of list size

The temp pointer is just a cursor. Moving temp does NOT modify the original list.