为什么有人想要使用链表而不是数组?

这只是一个原因——如果你需要一个链表数据结构，而你所使用的编程语言不支持指针。

Eric Lippert最近发表了一篇关于数组应该保守使用的原因之一的文章。

为什么有人想要使用链表而不是数组?

这只是一个原因——如果你需要一个链表数据结构，而你所使用的编程语言不支持指针。

数组Vs链表:

由于内存碎片，阵列内存分配有时会失败。 在数组中缓存更好，因为所有元素都分配了连续的内存空间。 编码比数组更复杂。 与数组不同，在链表上没有大小限制 在链表中插入/删除更快，在数组中访问更快。 从多线程的角度来看，链表更好。

While many of you have touched upon major adv./dis of linked list vs array, most of the comparisons are how one is better/ worse than the other.Eg. you can do random access in array but not possible in linked list and others. However, this is assuming link lists and array are going to be applied in a similar application. However a correct answer should be how link list would be preferred over array and vice-versa in a particular application deployment. Suppose you want to implement a dictionary application, what would you use ? Array : mmm it would allow easy retrieval through binary search and other search algo .. but lets think how link list can be better..Say you want to search "Blob" in dictionary. Would it make sense to have a link list of A->B->C->D---->Z and then each list element also pointing to an array or another list of all words starting with that letter ..

A -> B -> C -> ...Z
|    |    |
|    |    [Cat, Cave]
|    [Banana, Blob]
[Adam, Apple]

Now is the above approach better or a flat array of [Adam,Apple,Banana,Blob,Cat,Cave] ? Would it even be possible with array ? So a major advantage of link list is you can have an element not just pointing to the next element but also to some other link list/array/ heap/ or any other memory location. Array is a one flat contigous memory sliced into blocks size of the element it is going to store.. Link list on the other hand is a chunks of non-contigous memory units (can be any size and can store anything) and pointing to each other the way you want. Similarly lets say you are making a USB drive. Now would you like files to be saved as any array or as a link list ? I think you get the idea what I am pointing to :)

合并两个链表(特别是两个双链表)比合并两个数组快得多(假设合并是破坏性的)。前者取O(1)，后者取O(n)。

编辑:澄清一下，我在这里指的是无序意义上的“合并”，而不是归并排序。也许"串联"这个词更合适。