A table is an array implementation of a sequence. The elements are stored in contiguous cells of an array. In this representation, a list can easily be traversed, and new elements can easily be added to the tail of the list. If an element needs to be inserted into the middle of the list, however, all following elements need to be shifted to make room for the new element. Similarly, if an element needs to be removed from the list, and the element is not the last element in the list, all elements following the element to be deleted must be shifted in to close up the gap.
A table can access all elements quickly because all elements can be stored in a single storage block. If all of the following conditions hold true for your use of a collection, a table is a suitable implementation variant to use:
Note that memory is statically allocated for tables, at the beginning of your program.
The figure below shows a table implementation variant.
Table Implementation Variant
Introduction to the
Collection Classes
Collection Class
Hierarchy
Overall
Implementation Structure
Flat Collections
Trees
AVL Tree
B* Tree
Diluted Table
Hash Table
List
Class Template
Naming Conventions
Possible
Implementation Paths
Choosing One
of the Provided Implementation Variants
Replacing the
Default Implementation
Taking Advantage
of the Abstract Class Hierarchy
Instantiating
the Collection Classes
