Create a linked list from an array, and also free that list

Question

I'm currently learning C/C++ and I saw this question on Reddit on how to create a linked from an array and decided that would make a good exercise for learning the absolute basics of C, so without looking at the answers I wrote this.

Anyways, preamble aside, here's the code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>

typedef struct Node Node;

typedef struct Node {
    int data;
    Node *next;
} Node;

Node *array_to_list(int32_t array[], int32_t length) {
    if (length <= 0) {
        return NULL;
    }

    Node* tail = NULL;

    for (int32_t i = length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
        Node* current = (Node*) malloc(sizeof(Node));
        current->data = array[i];
        current->next = tail;
        tail = current;
    }

    return tail;
}

void free_list(Node *head) {
    while (head != NULL) {
        Node *next = head->next;
        free(head);
        head = next;
    }
}

int main() {
    int array[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
    Node *list = array_to_list(array, 5);

    Node *current = list;
    while (current != NULL) {
        printf("%d\n", current->data);
        current = current->next;
    }

    free_list(list);

    return 0;
}

As of now this is all inside main.c and I didn't implement any other methods a linked list would normally have, I'm just trying to see if I'm doing things right

Answer 1

Use the correct types

Use size_t instead of int32_t for the array size and index. Using int32_t will limit it to arrays containing 2,147,483,647 elements even if you compiled it for 64-bit mode.

Also, note that it does not make sense to check if i or length is less than zero since it is unsigned.

Node* array_to_list(int array[], size_t length) {
    // ...
    for (size_t i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        // ...
    }
    return tail;
}

Check if malloc was successful

You cannot simply assume that there will be enough memory available.

Putting it all together:

Node* array_to_list(int array[], size_t length) {
    Node* tail = NULL;
    for (size_t i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        Node* current = malloc(sizeof(Node));
        if (!current)
        {
            fprintf(stderr, "Out of memory error");
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        current->data = array[length - 1 - i];
        current->next = tail;
        tail = current;
    }
    return tail;
}

int main() {
    int array[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
    struct Node* list = array_to_list(array, sizeof(array) / sizeof(array[0]));
    for (Node* node = list; node; node = node->next)
        printf("%d\n", node->data);
    free_list(list);
}