Chapter 12. Storing Data in Collections
One of the most common operations in programming is storing large sets of data. Traditionally, programmers used arrays to store related data. Because arrays can store custom data types, they seem to be the answer to many data-storage and data-manipulation issues. Arrays, however, don't expose all the functionality you might need in your application. To address the issues of data storage outside databases, the Framework provides, in addition to arrays, certain classes known as collections.
There are databases, of course, that can store any type of data and preserve their structure as well, but not all applications use databases. Although databases store data permanently, collections live in memory and must ...
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