C++ - Single Linked List - Ideas

I want to write a method to remove consecutive items with duplicate data values from a singly linked list. The method should return the number of items removed. The method should clean up memor开发者_如何学运维y as required, and should assume that memory was allocated using new.

For example, passing in the list

->a->b->c->c->a->b->b->b->a->null should result in

->a->b->c->a->b->a->null and return 3

The list item definition and function declaration are given below

struct litem { char data; litem* next; };

int remove_consecutive_duplicates( litem*& list );

I have a simple logic to check the next element recursively & removing the element if its duplicate. 
But, i would like to know how many efficient ways to do this ?  All ideas welcome from C++ gurus..

You can use std::list, and before pushing element on it you must check:

if ((*l.rbegin()) == next)
{
    return;
}

l.push_back(next);

in meta language:

item = items.first
while (item != null) {
    while (item.next != null && item.value = item.next.value) {
        temp = item.next
        item.next = item.next.next
        temp.dispose
    }
    item = item.next
}

As far as I can see, there's not a lot to optimize here. Returning the number of items used is just a case of incrementing a counter. Basically, if you find that litem->data == litem->next->data, then you need to do the removal like so:

litem* tmpItem = currentItem->next;
currentItem->next = tmpItem->next;
delete tmpItem;

Keep iterating until currentItem->next == NULL, to avoid referencing beyond the end of the list.