dsernst/visualize_complex_linked_list.md

## visualize_complex_linked_list.md

      
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              visualize_complex_linked_list.md
            
          
    How to arrange a complex linked list?

Given a singly linked list like this:
[
  {
    uid: 'a',
    full_name: 'Angela Augustine',
    next: 'c',
  },
  {
    uid: 'b',
    full_name: 'Ben Botticelli',
    next: 'd',
  },
  {
    uid: 'c',
    full_name: 'Carl Campbell',
    next: 'a',
  },
  {
    uid: 'd',
    full_name: 'Dalia Douglass',
    next: 'b',
  },
  {
    uid: 'e',
    full_name: 'Eva Ernst',
    next: 'a',
  },
  {
    uid: 'f',
    full_name: 'Franklin Fishburne',
    next: 'a',
  },
  {
    uid: 'g',
    full_name: 'Grant Gordon',
    next: 'a',
  },
  {
    uid: 'h',
    full_name: 'Heather Highgarden',
    next: 'a',
  },
]
How would you arrange the nodes in two dimensions for clarity?
The Reingold-Tilford algorithm that @mbostock uses in Radial Reingold–Tilford Tree is very nice looking, but breaks down in our use case because it doesn't have any cycles. Ours won't have a single node in the center without a pointer.
Maybe this will work: http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/1153292