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A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition, 2nd Edition
book

A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

by Jay Wengrow
August 2020
Intermediate to advanced
508 pages
11h 53m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

Efficiency of Linked List Operations

After our analysis, it emerges that the comparison of linked lists and arrays breaks down as follows:

Operation

Array

Linked list

Reading

O(1)

O(N)

Search

O(N)

O(N)

Insertion

O(N) (O(1) at end)

O(N) (O(1) at beginning)

Deletion

O(N) (O(1) at end)

O(N) (O(1) at beginning)

In the grand scheme of things, linked lists seem to be lackluster when it comes to time complexity. They perform similarly to arrays for search, insertion, and deletion, and are much slower when it comes to reading. If so, why would one ever want to use a linked list?

The key to unlocking the linked list’s power is in the fact that the actual insertion and deletion steps are just O(1).

But isn’t that only relevant when inserting or deleting at the beginning ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781680508048Errata Page