There is actually no difference in the memory access pattern of the two approaches, unless your compiler is entirely out to lunch. Memory is only touched in ei

There is actually no difference in the memory access pattern of the two approaches, unless your compiler is entirely out to lunch. Memory is only touched in either approach to: a. loading the address of the next node. b. updating the link address when a node is deleted. which are performed the same number of times on the same underlying data in either approach.