Edit: Arrays and memory layout

Write lesson content with headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotations and resources.

Lesson details

Lesson title

Estimated minutes

Status

Content

Heading
Paragraph
Explains how arrays store elements contiguously and why indexing is constant time.
Paragraph
An array reserves a single block of memory. Because every element is the same size and the elements are adjacent, the address of element i is the base address plus i times the element size, which the processor computes in one step.
Paragraph
Contiguity also means that scanning an array in order is friendly to the CPU cache, which is one reason arrays often outperform linked structures in practice even when the asymptotic cost is the same.

Resources

Attach downloadable files for this lesson. Uploads use short-lived signed URLs once storage is connected; captions or transcripts can be added to audio and video, and images require alternative text.