Which_Data_Structure_to_Use

Which data structure to use?

Sourece Of Data

1. From the program itself
2. From the UI
3. From external sources

For Simple List: Arrays or Sets

Arrays

• Use when you need ordered list of values (might contain duplicates)
• Use when you need to manipulate data

Sets

• Use when you need to work with unique values
• Use when high-performance is really important
• Use to remove duplicates from arrays

For Key/Value Pairs: Objects or Maps

Objects

• Features
  • More “traditional” key/value store(“abused” objects)
  • Easier to write and access values with . and [ ]
• Use when
  • you need to include functions(methods)
  • working with JSON(can convert to map)

Maps

• Features
  • Better performance
  • Keys can have any data type
  • Easy to iterate
  • Easy to compute size
• Use when
  • you simply need to map key to values
  • you need keys that are not strings