Concurrent data structure design

Question

I am trying to come up with the best data structure for use in a high throughput C++ server. The data structure will be used to store anything from a few to several million obje

Answer 1

Linked lists are definitely the answer here. Insertion and deletion in O(1), iteration from one node to the next in O(1) and stability across operations. std::list guarantees all of these, including that all iterators are valid unless the element is removed from the list (this include pointers and references to elements). For locking, you could just wrap the list in a locking class, or you could write your own list class (you wouldn't be able to use std::list in this case that supports node-based locking - e.g. you can lock down certain areas of the list for use while other threads perform operations on different areas. Which you use is largely dependent on the type of concurrent access you expect - if multiple operations on different parts of the list will be really common, write your own, but remember you will be putting a mutex object in each node, which isn't space-efficient.