Difference between Array and Linked list

 Difference between Array and Linked List

=================================================================================

Difference between Array and Linked list




Array: Arrays store elements in contiguous memory locations, resulting in easily calculable addresses for the elements stored and this allows faster access to an element at a specific index.


Linked List: Linked lists are less rigid in their storage structure and elements are usually not stored in contiguous locations, hence they need to be stored with additional tags giving a reference to the next element. 


This difference in the data storage scheme decides which data structure would be more suitable for a given situation.


ARRAY

LINKED LIST

Array cannot grow or shrink dynamically. (realloc() is not efficient)

Linked List can grow or shrink dynamically.

Array has contiguous memory. Hence random access is possible.

Notes are not in contiguous memory. Hence only sequential access is allowed.

Arrays do not have memory overheads.

Linked lists have memory overheads eg. Each node contains address of “next” node.

Insert / delete at middle position needs to shift remaining elements. Hence will be slower.

Insert / delete at middle position needs to modify links (next/prev pointers). Hence will be faster.

To deal to fixed number of elements and frequent random access, arrays are better

To deal to dynamic number of elements and frequent insertion / deletion operators, linked list are better

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TREE

Image
TREE ================================================================================ A  Tree  is a  non-linear data structure  and a hierarchy consisting of a collection of nodes such that each node of the tree stores a value and a list of references to other nodes (the “children”). A tree consists of a root, and zero or more subtrees T 1 , T 2 , … , T k  such that there is an edge from the root of the tree to the root of each subtree. Basic Terminologies:   Parent Node:  The node which is a predecessor of a node is called the parent node of that node.  {B}  is the parent node of  {D, E} . Child Node:  The node which is the immediate successor of a node is called the child node of that node. Examples:  {D, E}  are the child nodes of  {B}. Root Node:  The topmost node of a tree or the node which does not have any parent node is called the root node. {A }  is the root node of the tree. A non-empty tree must contain exactly one root node and exactly one path from the root to all other no
Read more

STACK

Image
STACK ================================================================================ Stack is a linear data structure that follows a particular order in which the operations are performed.  The order may be LIFO(Last In First Out) or FILO(First In Last Out). Basic Operation on Stack: push() :  To insert an element into the stack pop() :  To remove an element from the stack top() :  Returns the top element of the stack. isEmpty() :  Returns true if stack is empty else false. isFull() :  Returns true if stack is full else false. push(): Adds an item to the stack. If stack is full, then it said to be an "Overflow Condition". Time Complexity: 0(1) Only a new node is created and the pointer of the last node is updated. This includes only memory allocation operations. Hence it can be said that insertion is done in constant time. Algorithm: begin if stack is full return endif else increment top stack[top] = assign value end else end Flow Chart: %3CmxGraphModel%3E%3Croot%3E%3CmxCel
Read more

Evaluation of postfix expression

Image
    Evaluation of postfix expression ================================================================================  Postfix notation (also known as Reverse Polish Notation) is a way to represent an expression, where operators follow their corresponding operands.    Evaluating an expression represented as postfix notation can easily be done using the stack data structure. Algorithm: begin x = read first symbol from postfix expression while(x) if (x is an operator) operand1: pop() operand2: pop() result = operand2 operator operand1 push(result) end if else push(x) end else x = read next symbol end while end eg . 6 2 3 + - Solution:   Symbol Stack Evaluation 6   2   3   + operand1 = 3, operand2 = 2 result = 2 + 3 - operand1 = 5, operand2 = 6 result = 6 - 5  
Read more