Introduction to Advantages of Array
Arrays are used when there is need to use many variables of the same type. It can be defined as a sequence of objects which are of the same data type. It is used to store a collection of data and it is more useful to think of an array as a collection of variables of the same type. Arrays can be declared and used. A programmer has to specify the types of elements and the number of elements which are required by an array. This is called as a single dimensional array. The array size should be an integer constant and greater than zero.
Once they are declared they can be initialized either by using one by one or by using a single statement. An example can be:
double balance[5] = {1000.0, 2.0, 3.4, 7.0, 50.0};
If you disregard the size of the array, the array would be big enough to hold the initialization that is created. In order to further access the array, the array indexes are used. This is done by placing the index of an element within the square brackets after the name of the array. For example, if a statement is written as double salary= balance [9], then the 10th element of the array will be assigned to the value of that salary variable.
Arrays can also be multi-dimensional arrays. Also, they can be passed to functions and they can be returned from a function. With this, you can also make use of pointers which help you to generate the first element of an array and you can simply specify the array name without mentioning the index.
Advantages of Array
Top 10 advantages of Array are as follows:
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Saves memory
Memory can be allocated dynamically in an array. This advantage of array helps to save the memory of the system. It also helps when the pre-defined array has insufficient memory. At runtime memory can be allocated manually during run time. Also when memory allocation is not dynamic it stored the data in contiguous memory locations. The amount of storage required depends on the data type or size.
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Cache Friendly
In an array, values are near each other in memory. They can be accessed easily from CPU to cache. This brings to a conclusion that iteration over an array is much faster than any other iteration. It parses the array an array of reference may be an advantage here.
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Predictable timings with Array
In both the hash table and array the access time is provided. However, the hash table is a bit complicated and it usually involves multiple steps where each step may involve cache misses and memory reload. When arrays are taken into consideration the system is well aware of the precise address of the array and wherein memory is it allocated and stored. Hence accessing arrays is not only fast but also it is predictable.
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Easier debugging
When taken into consideration a linked list, it is usually time-consuming to check if an index is valid or not. Similarly, it is difficult to check it in a hash table as well. But when it comes to an array it has its specified indexes and hence optimal to use. It can be directly traversed with the index position.
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More compact in memory usage
An array requires memory space only for the values, the start address and its length. On the contrary, a linked list needs a pointer for every value which is inserted. It acquires memory for every address and also when extra data is inserted it also needs memory for the same. Hash table also needs memory depending on how it is implemented. This implementation decides how memory is allocated and usually, it requires extra allocation.
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Advantages over variables
An array is considered to be a homogenous collection of data. Here the word collection means that it helps in storing multiple values which are under the same variable. For any purpose, if the user wishes to store multiple values of similar type, an array is the best option which can be used. As a result for any purpose if a user wishes to store multiple values of a similar type then arrays can be used and utilized efficiently.
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Advantages over data structures
An array is also a collection of data which stores data of the same type and in a sequential manner. As this data is stored in a sequential manner it is efficient to track it by using just its index values. This is not easy when taken into consideration the non-sequential data structures. In these cases every time you need to traverse to a particular desired position and then access its value.
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Helps in reusability of code
One of the major advantages of an array is that they can be declared once and reused multiple times. It represents multiple values by making use of a single variable. This helps in improvement of reusability of code and also improves the readability of the code. If in this situation no array is used then we will need to store multiple values in multiple variables.
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Zero-length arrays
Zero-length arrays is also an advantage which is considered to be flexible and are used to implement variable length arrays. When a structure is taken into consideration then the user often ends up wasting memory and the constants are too large. When zero-length arrays are used then the allocated structures do not consume any memory. They act as pointers. They can be said as zero-length arrays are pointers whose contents are in line at itself.
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Multi-dimensional arrays
These can be defined as an array of arrays. Data which is present in tabular format like 1D, 2D, etc. can be defined. The total number of elements can be stored in the multi-dimensional array and can be calculated by multiplying the size of all dimensions.
Conclusion
Hence arrays are more efficient and beneficial when compared to linked lists and hash tables. They are faster and can be utilized anywhere. They store data of similar data types together and can be used anywhere in the code. Hence they are more efficient when it comes to memory allocations and are most advisable to be used in all modern languages.
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This has been a guide to Advantages of Array. Here we have discussed the basic concept and top 10 advantages of Array in detail. You can also look at the following article to learn more –
