Searching is a fundamental operation in data structures that allows us to find a specific element in a collection. In a linked list, searching for an element involves traversing through the list and comparing each node's value with the target value.

To implement the search functionality in a linked list, we can start from the head node and traverse the list until we find the desired element or reach the end.

Here's an example of a method that performs a search for a given value in a singly linked list:

1search(int value) {
2    Node current = head;
3    while (current != null) {
4        if (current.data == value) {
5            return true;
6        }
7        current = current.next;
8    }
9    return false;
10}

In the above code, we initialize a current variable with the head node and iterate through the list by updating the current to its next node. We compare the data value of each node with the target value. If we find a match, we return true. If we reach the end of the list without finding a match, we return false.

The time complexity of the search operation in a linked list is O(n), where n is the number of nodes in the list. In the worst case, we need to traverse the entire list to find the target element.

Now that you understand how to implement the search functionality in a linked list, you can use this knowledge to find specific elements within your linked list and perform various operations based on the search result.

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public boolean search(int value) {

    Node current = head;

    while (current != null) {

        if (current.data == value) {

            return true;

        }

        current = current.next;

    }

    return false;

}