Reverse a Doubly Linked List

Last Updated: 19 January, 2025 🕓 5 Mins

In this tutorial we are going to talk about how to reverse a doubly linked list using the Java program.

In order to reverse a doubly linked list, we need to iterate through the list while swapping the next and previous pointers of each node. Once we reach the end of the list, the head pointer will point to the last node of the list.

Let's understand the reverse of a doubly linked list with the given example below:

Example: Reverse a Doubly Linked List in Java

  public class Node {
    int data;   // Data stored in the node
    Node prev;  // Reference to the next node in the list
    Node next;  // Reference to the previous node in the list
  
    // Constructor to initialize a new node with data
    Node(int new_data) {
      data = new_data;
      prev = null;
      next = null;
    }
  }

  
  // Java program to reverse a doubly linked list using recursion approach
  public class ReverseDoublyLinkedList {
    static Node head;
    
    // Method to insert a node in doubly linked list
    static void insertNode(int data) {
      Node newNode = new Node(data);
      Node last = head;
      if (head == null) {
        head = newNode;
        return;
      }
      while (last.next != null) {
        last = last.next;
      }
      last.next = newNode;
      newNode.prev = last;
    }
    
    // Method to reverse a doubly linked list using recursive approach
    static Node reverseList(Node node) {
      
      // If node is null that means list is empty
      if (node == null)
        return null;
      
      // Swap the next and previous pointers
      Node temp = node.prev;
      node.prev = node.next;
      node.next = temp;
      
      // If prev is null after swap, this is the new head
      if (node.prev == null) {
        return node;
      }
      
      // Recurse for the next node
      return reverseList(node.prev);
    }
    
    // Method to print a list
    static void printList(Node node) {
      while (node != null) {
        System.out.print(node.data + " ");
        node = node.next;
      }
      System.out.println();
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
      // Insert node into a doubly linked list
      insertNode(10);
      insertNode(20);
      insertNode(30);
      insertNode(40);
      insertNode(50);
      
      System.out.println("Original doubly linked list:");
      printList(head);
      
      // Reverse the doubly linked list
      head = reverseList(head);
      
      System.out.println("Reversed doubly linked list:");
      printList(head);
    }
  }