Significance of Arrays in Competitive Programming (CP)
In CP, we require the solutions to be fast, array is one such data structure which provide O(1) access of data elements and it can provide various operations to be formed in O(log N) or O(N) traversals.
Significance of Arrays in comparison to other similar data structures:
Characteristics | Arrays | Linked Lists | Stacks | Queues | Hash Tables |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Access Time | Constant time (O(1)) | Linear time (O(n)) | Constant time (O(1)) | Constant time (O(1)) | Average O(1), Worst O(n) |
Memory Allocation | Contiguous | Non-contiguous | – | – | – |
Size Flexibility | Fixed size or dynamic with resizing | Dynamic | Dynamic | Dynamic | Dynamic |
Insertion/Deletion Efficiency | Linear time (O(n)) for resizing | Constant time (O(1)) for specific location, Linear time (O(n)) for general | Constant time (O(1)) | Constant time (O(1)) | Average O(1), Worst O(n) |
Order of Elements | Maintains order | No inherent order | LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) | FIFO (First-In-First-Out) | – |
Common Applications | General-purpose data storage and manipulation | Symbol tables, memory allocation | Managing function calls, recursion | Task scheduling, breadth-first search | Databases, caching, symbol tables |
Arrays for Competitive Programming
In this article, we will be discussing Arrays which is one of the most commonly used data structure. It also plays a major part in Competitive Programming. Moreover, we will see built-in methods used to write short codes for array operations that can save some crucial time during contests.
Table of Content
- What are Arrays in Programming?
- Significance of Arrays in Competitive Programming (CP)
- How to implement Arrays in different Programming Languages?
- Array Hacks for Competitive Programming (CP)
- Array Concepts for Competitive Programming (CP)