The following content was originally taken from MSDN http://xbox.create.msdn.com/downloads/?id=123&filename=DataStructures_CheatSheet.doc (but the link has since died).
As in the image above, the content was originally provided as a table (which StackOverflow doesn't support).
Given an image isn't easily indexed below is a somewhat crude programmatic conversion of the information to lists:
Array
- add to end:
O(n)
- remove from end:
O(n)
- insert at middle:
O(n)
- remove from middle:
O(n)
- Random Access:
O(1)
- In-order Access:
O(1)
- Search for specific element:
O(n)
- Notes: Most efficient use of memory; use in cases where data size is fixed.
List
- add to end:
best case O(1); worst case O(n)
- remove from end:
O(1)
- insert at middle:
O(n)
- remove from middle:
O(n)
- Random Access:
O(1)
- In-order Access:
O(1)
- Search for specific element:
O(n)
- Notes: Implementation is optimized for speed. In many cases, List will be the best choice.
Collection
- add to end:
best case O(1); worst case O(n)
- remove from end:
O(1)
- insert at middle:
O(n)
- remove from middle:
O(n)
- Random Access:
O(1)
- In-order Access:
O(1)
- Search for specific element:
O(n)
- Notes: List is a better choice, unless publicly exposed as API.
LinkedList
- add to end:
O(1)
- remove from end:
O(1)
- insert at middle:
O(1)
- remove from middle:
O(1)
- Random Access:
O(n)
- In-order Access:
O(1)
- Search for specific element:
O(n)
- Notes: Many operations are fast, but watch out for cache coherency.
Stack
- add to end:
best case O(1); worst case O(n)
- remove from end:
O(1)
- insert at middle:
N/A
- remove from middle:
N/A
- Random Access:
N/A
- In-order Access:
N/A
- Search for specific element:
N/A
- Notes: Shouldn't be selected for performance reasons, but algorithmic ones.
Queue
- add to end:
best case O(1); worst case O(n)
- remove from end:
O(1)
- insert at middle:
N/A
- remove from middle:
N/A
- Random Access:
N/A
- In-order Access:
N/A
- Search for specific element:
N/A
- Notes: Shouldn't be selected for performance reasons, but algorithmic ones.
Dictionary
- add to end:
best case O(1); worst case O(n)
- remove from end:
O(1)
- insert at middle:
best case O(1); worst case O(n)
- remove from middle:
O(1)
- Random Access:
O(1)*
- In-order Access:
O(1)*
- Search for specific element:
O(1)
- Notes: Although in-order access time is constant time, it is usually slower than other structures due to the over-head of looking up the key.
