Counting no of nodes in the Singly Linked List (SLL)

function for counting the sll nodes is similar to display(), only difference is we are using counter variable to count the no of nodes in the loop.
This is the function for finding the no of nodes in the linked list
int length()
{
 node<T> *p=first;
 int ctr=0;
 while(p!=NULL)
 {
  ctr++;
  p=p->link;
 }
 return(ctr);
}//end of length()



//COUNT THE NUMBER OF NODES IN THE LINKED LIST (SLL)
#include<iostream.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdio.h>
template<class T>
class sll;
template<class T>
class node
{
 private:
  T data;
  node<T>* link;
 friend class sll<T>;
};
template <class T>
class sll
{
 private:
  node<T> * first;
 public:
 //Mem.Fun declarations
  sll();

  int isempty();

  int length();
  void append(node<T> *k);
  void create();

};
//Member Functions defination
template<class T>
sll<T>::sll()
{
 first=NULL;//first points to no where,it is an empty node
}
template<class T>
int sll<T>::isempty()
{
 return(first==NULL);//return true when linked list is empty and false otherwise
}
//length() defination
template<class T>
int sll<T>::length()
{
 node<T> *p=first;
 int ctr=0;
 while(p!=NULL)
 {
  ctr++;
  p=p->link;
 }
 return(ctr);
}//end of length()

template<class T>
void sll<T>::append(node<T> *k)
{
 node<T> *last;
 k->link=NULL;
 if(isempty())
  first=k;
 else
 {
  last=first;
  while(last->link!=NULL)//keep moving last pointer until last node is reached
  {
   last=last->link;
  }
  last->link=k;//attach last node and new node k
 }
}
template <class T>
void sll<T>::create()
{
 T x;
 node<T> *k;
 first=NULL;
 cout<<"enter values terminated by -1 or !\n";
 cin>>x;
 while(x!=-1&&x!='!')
 {
  k=new node<T>;
  k->data=x;
  append(k);
  cin>>x;
 }
}//end of create()

void main()
{
 sll<int> a;//creating object a,and d.c is called
 node<int> *p;
 int x,i;
 clrscr();
 a.create();


 getch();
}