State the advantages of link list over array.

Advantages of Linked List over an Array

• Linked lists are dynamic data structures, which means they can grow or shrink during the execution of a program.

• There is no need to define an initial size for a Linked list.

• There is no need to specify how many nodes are required.

• Therefore, linked lists have efficient memory utilization and no wastage of memory.

• In Linked list memory is not preallocated.

• Memory is allocated whenever it is required and it is de-allocated or removed when it is no longer needed.

• The main advantage of a linked list over an array is Insertion and Deletion operations are easier and more efficient.

• Linked lists provide flexibility in inserting a data item at a specified position and deletion of the data item from the given position.

• No need for reallocation or reorganization of the entire structure of the list because the data items are not stored contiguously in memory or on disk.

• This will also lead to a reduction in the data access time in the linked list.

• But, doing this in array at run-time is a very much expensive operation.

• Because the arrays are a type of static data structure, therefore, the size remains fixed and we would need to allocate all the storage at the starting.

• Many complex applications can be easily carried out with linked lists.

• Some of them are as follows:

  • Hash Table Implementation
  • Polynomial Representation
  • Adjacency List Implementation for Graphs
  • Abstract Data Type Implementation
  • S-expressions
  • Implement Associative Arrays
  • Stack and Queue Implementation