Programming : previous year question programming

Question

Consider the function f defined below.

    struct item {
        int data;
        struct item * next;
};
int f(struct item *p) {
    return ((p == NULL) || (p->next == NULL)|| 
        ((p->data <= p ->next -> data) &&
        f(p->next)));
}

For a given linked list p, the function  f returns 1 if and only if

• A. the list is empty or has exactly one element

• B. the elements in the list are sorted in non-decreasing order of data value

• C. the elements in the list are sorted in non-increasing order of data value

• D. not all elements in the list have the same data value

I m not getting it ,there is no return 1 statment so how thiz will right ?

Answer 1

Option B)  return ((p == NULL) || (p->next == NULL)|| ((p->data <= p ->next -> data) && f(p->next))). Look at the return condition carefully. F will return true only if the value of all successive nodes are greater than the previous node. If there are no nodes or if there is only one node even then this function will return true. Hence the OR conditions (p == NULL) || (p->next == NULL).

Comments

cn u draw diagram by taking simple example

plz

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Why not option a it also goes with the question asked.