They can be stored in a linear list. Now these list data can be arranged later based on the increasing row numbers and for common rows, based on increasing column numbers.

Each element can be represented using a node having four fields as

struct node {
int r_value,c_value,data;
struct node* next;
}

Over here next is a pointer to the next node in the linked list which also has a non-zero element from the sparse matrix.

/* Sparse Matrix representation using linked list */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
typedef struct list
{
int rows, cols, value;
struct list *next;
} list;
list *create()
{
list *temp = (list *)malloc(sizeof(list));
if (temp == NULL)
{
    printf(“/nMemory Allocation Error!”);
    exit(1);
}
return temp;
}
list *makenode(int r, int c, int val)
{
list *temp = create();
temp->rows = r;
temp->cols = c;
temp->value = val;
temp->next = NULL;
return temp;
}
list *insert(list *head, int r, int c, int val)
{
list *ptr, *temp = head;
if (head == NULL)
{
    head = makenode(r, c, val);
}
else
{
    while (temp->next!= NULL)
        temp = temp->next;
    ptr = makenode(r, c, val);
    temp->next = ptr;
}
return head;
}
void display(list *head)
{
list *temp;
if (head == NULL)
{
    Printf(“/nList is empty.”);
    exit(1);
}
temp = head;
while (temp!= NULL)
{
    printf(“( % d, % d, % d->)->”, temp->rows, temp->cols, temp->value);
    temp = temp->next;
}
printf(“bb “);
}
int main()
{
int arr[3][4], i, j, m, n, ct = 0;
list *head = NULL;
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
    printf(“/nEnter the values for row % d?”, i + 1);
    for (j = 0;j < 4;j++)
    {
        scanf(“ % d”, &arr[i][j]);
        if (arr[i][j] != 0)
            ct++;
    }
}
head = makenode(3, 4, ct);
for (i = 0;i < 3;i++)
{
    for (j = 0;j < 4;j++)
    {
        if (arr[i][j] != 0)
            head = insert(head, i, j, arr[i][j]);
    }
}
printf(“/nList representation of Sparse Matrix is: n”);
display(head);
getch();
}