Hello all,

I'm still pretty new to java and I'm having trouble understanding how
to reference a node.

I've written 2 classes, a node class with mutator and accessor methods
and a linked list class.  I need to write a method within the linked
list class that will insert a new object into the linked list.

This is where I'm stuck.  :(    The stuff below won't compile ....I
understand the logic that I need to do but I'm having understanding
how to reference a node, the compiler is complaining the variable curr
is private in the Node class (but the professor wants us to declare
all variables private for more robust code so I have to do that).

I'm totally confused.  I'm stuck as to how to go about solving this
problem or what to do to understand this concept a bit
better....anyone out there have ideas?

ANY help is appreciated,
Marion

public class LinkedList{
 /**
  * Construct the list
  */
 private Node head;
 private int length;

 public LinkedList() {
   this.head = null;
   this.length = 0;
 }

 /**
  * Test if the list is empty
  * @return true if empty
  */
 public boolean isEmpty(){
   return head == null;
 }

 /**
  * Get the data at position specified
  * @param position is the location queried
  * @return data at the position specified in the list
  */
 public Object getItemAtPosition(int position) {
   if (position<0 || position >= this.length){
     return null;
   }
   Node curr = this.head;
   for (int i=0;i<position;i++){
     curr = curr.getNext();
   }
   return curr.getData();
 }

 public boolean insert (Object data,int position){
   if (position<0 || position > this.length ){
     return false;
   }
   // this part I'm confused at too...I don't know what data to
assign
   // the getItemAtPosition(position) to, but what I want to do is
advance
   // the node pointer to the parameter position that is passed to
this method.
   getItemAtPosition(position);

   // create the new node
   Node temp = new Node(data);
   // make the new node's next field to the current next field
   temp.next = curr.next;
   // make current next field point to the new node
   curr.next = temp.next;
   return true;
 }

}

Then my node class is:
public class Node {
 private Object data;
 private Node next;

 public Node(Object data){
   this.data = null;
 }
 public Node(Object data,Node next){
   this.data = data;
   this.next = next;
 }
 public void setNext(Node next){
   this.next = next;
 }
 public void setData(Object data){
   this.data = data;
 }
 public Node getNext(){
   return this.next;
 }
 public Object getData(){
   return this.data;

 }
}