How Useful Are Arrays ?

Hi Guys

I was wondering, how actually useful are Arrays ? I mean I can think of 1000s of Apps where one needs collections, but in all cases I find writing and retreaving data from a database more logical than using an Array !!

Where exactly do Arrays come to their own league and are the best logical solution ?

I was thinking of building a Note Apps, but it seems more logical to use a database for storing the notes !!

I'd appreciate some comments and corrections for my opinion of Arrays !

Thank You.

Arrays can be useful if you have n elements of type T and you have to manipulate them. The value of n has to be fixed before you do the manipulations and the type T also has to be known in advance and the manipulation of the elements can't be done sequentially. To most people new to programming arrays are the one size fits all data structure and they cram and abuse their programs and logic to be able to use arrays. Arrays have their (limited) use.

kind regards,

Jos

Abuse >> Exactly !!

Can you tell me a project example, of when Array would be better use than a Database ?

Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by House

Can you tell me a project example, of when Array would be better use than a Database ?

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I'm not sure how to answer this question since use of arrays and database are not mutually exclusive. They are both used for very different reasons.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by House

Abuse >> Exactly !!

Can you tell me a project example, of when Array would be better use than a Database ?

Thanks

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Erm, a Sudoku solver? A couple of 9x9 arrays can do the job faster than database access. Matrix manipulations, any fixed set of homogenous types T, etc. Databases come with their (non trivial) overhead.

kind regards,

Jos

?
I write Java code that accesses databases...that's my job.
I cannot think of one project I have been on whereby I did not need collections (ie arrays).

What on earth do you expect to do with the result of the following query if not stick it in a collection??
"SELECT * FROM my_table"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tolls

What on earth do you expect to do with the result of the following query if not stick it in a collection??
"SELECT * FROM my_table"

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A Collection is fine, but just an array? For one thing: you need to know the number of rows in the ResultSet in advance to be able to create an array of exactly that length ...

kind regards,

Jos

I'm not convinced the OP wa simply talking about arrays...he does mention collections as a general term.

In any case, arrays tend to back most Lists, so the ArrayList I stick most of my results into is simply a convenient front end to an array.

The fastest single processor
sort method is quicksort.

Quick sort implements an array
to perform its sort.

I have a wireframe editor project
that holds its data in a
linked-list. This simplifies the
implementation of the project's
editing functions.

I needed a fast method to
re-order the triangles in
wireframe models according to
their Z coordinates.

So I implemented an array of
linked-list referrences in a
quicksort method. The results
is exceptional.

Moral:
The fastest single processor
data sorting algorithm in
computer history requires an
array to perform.

how random of you

As others have said, I'm finding them useful for things that don't change their size.

For example, I'm writing an application that has a calendar in it and an object for each month of the year. Now, unless the moon falls into the sea, there will always be twelve months in each year!

Therefore, it's easier for me to use an array than a vector.

Isn't that an enum?