Chapter 3: Arrays and Their Operations
In the previous chapter, we briefly touched upon arrays. Now, let’s dig deeper into Arrays, one of the most basic yet powerful data structures. Arrays are widely used because they offer fast access and are easy to implement. In this chapter, we’ll explore arrays in more detail, discuss their operations, and see how they can be used effectively. What is an Array? An Array is a collection of elements, all of the same data type, stored in contiguous memory locations. The elements of an array are indexed, meaning each element has a unique position in the array. The first element of the array is at index 0, the second at index 1, and so on. Example: If you declare an array like this: It means that: Arrays are particularly useful when you want to store multiple items and later access or manipulate them efficiently. Basic Operations on Arrays Arrays support several operations, which allow us to manipulate the data stored within them. Here are the most common operations: Let’s look at each of these in detail. 1. Traversal Traversal refers to visiting and accessing each element in the array. It is often done using a loop. Whether you want to print the elements or perform some calculation on each one, traversal helps you do that. Example: Here’s how you can traverse an array and print all its elements: This loop will print: 10 20 30 40 50 Time Complexity: 2. Insertion Insertion is the process of adding a new element to an array. Since arrays have a fixed size (in most languages), inserting an element may require shifting elements and resizing the array (if supported by the language). Example: Let’s say we have an array and we want to insert a new value 25 at position 2 (index 1): After this insertion, the array becomes: {10, 25, 20, 30, 40, 50} Time Complexity: 3. Deletion Deletion means removing an element from the array. Just like insertion, after deleting an element, you may need to shift the remaining elements to fill the gap. Example: If we want to delete the element at index 2 in the array {10, 25, 20, 30, 40, 50}: After this deletion, the array becomes: {10, 25, 30, 40, 50} Time Complexity: 4. Searching Searching is the process of finding the position (or index) of an element in the array. There are two common types of searching algorithms for arrays: This loop will find the element 30 at index 2. 5. Update Update involves changing the value of an element at a particular index. This is a very simple operation in an array because we can directly access the element by its index. Example: Let’s update the element at index 2 of the array {10, 25, 30, 40, 50} to 35: Now the array becomes: {10, 25, 35, 40, 50} Time Complexity: Advantages and Disadvantages of Arrays Advantages: Disadvantages: When to Use Arrays? If you need more flexibility in terms of size, or if you plan on frequently inserting and deleting elements, consider using other data structures like linked lists. Wrapping Up In this chapter, we explored arrays in-depth. Arrays are simple but highly efficient data structures that allow you to store and access elements quickly. However, they have limitations when it comes to dynamic resizing and handling frequent insertions and deletions. Next, we will dive into advanced data structures like Linked Lists, which offer greater flexibility in size and operations. Stay tuned for more in the next chapter!
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