How does computer read linked list

first thanks JosAH Junky liyuyu_852000 for answering my question on accessing linked list elements.

Now I am having an algorithm question. I have a linked list for more than 1000 elements (Strings). I want to compare them one by one, with existing strings.

I understand that computer accesses linked list by looking a the first element and follows the pointer one by one, till the desired stack.

I remember taking Operating Systems class and it says people design the OS in sort of the way that it executes the fastest on the way it is mostly used. My question is, would OS / Java Editor save the position of the last accessed element? for example, I wrote a for loop,

Code:

---

// list is a LinkedList. sentence is an array.
for(i = 0; i < list.size(); i++){
    for (j = 0; j < number_of_sentences; j++){
        if(sentence[j].equals((String) list.get(i))){
            match ++ ;
        }
    }
}

---

does computer remember the element of the list at i's position, so when it reads (i+1)'s element, it won't start from the beginning?

Are you using the Java API LinkedList class or one you have written yourself?

The class in the API does indeed start at head and follow the links to each node until it reaches the one you requested. If you are worried about performance when you iterate over the List then use the ListIterator class which keeps track of where in the List you are upto.

thanks, thats exactly my question! Turns out that 100-string linked list isn't that bad (i could feel the delay but still acceptable. its not a real time app anyway)