java - Better way to find matches in two sorted lists than using for loops?

Question

I have two sorted lists, both in non-decreasing order. For example, I have one sorted linked list with elements [2,3,4,5,6,7...] and the other one with elements [5,6,7,8,9...].

I need to find all common elements in both lists. I know I can use a for loop and a nested loop to iterate all matches to find the same two elements. However, is there another way to do this that has running time less than O(n^2)?

Answer 1

You can do it in O(n) time. Pseudocode:

a = list1.first
b = list2.first
repeat:
    if a == b:
        output a
        a = list1.next
        b = list2.next
    elif a < b:
        a = list1.next
    else
        b = list2.next
until either list has no more elements