Depends on where you store it. If you're just passing around node pointers, then you could create the dummy node on the stack only when you need it and it's th

Depends on where you store it. If you're just passing around node pointers, then you could create the dummy node on the stack only when you need it and it's the same indirection cost as the "indirect" pointer. If you've got a "list" struct that you're passing around (pretty unlikely in C), you could embed the dummy node directly.