Empty a linked list in Java

The Java LinkedList class comes with the clear() method that you can use to empty a linked list instance.

For example, suppose you initialize a LinkedList with Integer values as shown below:

LinkedList myList =
    new LinkedList(Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3));

You can empty the myList variable by calling the clear() method like this:

System.out.println(myList);
myList.clear();
System.out.println(myList);

The output of the println() call will be as follows:

[1, 2, 3]
[]

As you can see, the clear() method empties the myList instance, removing all values stored in the variable.

Alternatively, you can also create an empty LinkedList instance during initialization as follows:

LinkedList emptyList = new LinkedList();

You can then add values to the emptyList variable above by calling the add() method:

emptyList.add(1);
emptyList.add(2);
emptyList.add(3);

System.out.println(emptyList); // [1, 2, 3]

Now you’ve learned how to empty a LinkedList variable in Java. Good work! 👍