4.6: Advantages / Disadvantages
- Page ID
- 49281
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For the most part, an advantage of an array is a disadvantage of a linked list, and vice versa.
- Array Advantages (vs. Linked Lists)
- Index - Indexed access to any element in an array is fast; a linked list must be traversed from the beginning to reach the desired element.
- Faster - In general, accessing an element in an array is faster than accessing an element in a linked list.
- Linked-List Advantages (vs. Arrays)
- Resize - A linked list can easily be resized by adding elements without affecting the other elements in the list; an array can be enlarged only by allocating new chunk of memory and copying all the elements.
- Insertion - An element can easily be inserted into the middle of a linked list: a new link is created with a pointer to the link after it, and the previous link is made to point to the new link.
Side-note: - How to insert an element in the middle of an array. If an array is not full, you take all the elements after the spot or index in the array you want to insert, and move them forward by 1, then insert your element. If the array is already full and you want to insert an element, you would have to, in a sense, 'resize the array.' A new array would have to be made one size larger than the original array to insert your element, then all the elements of the original array are copied to the new array taking into consideration the spot or index to insert your element, then insert your element.