Question

Does it internally get treated as an Array or does it get treated as a totally different type by the CLR?

I am trying to implement integer values to the list.

List<int> lst = new List<int>();
lst.Add(3);
lst.Add(4);

vs.

I create an Array of integers

int[] arr = new int[2];
arr[0] = 3;
arr[1] = 4;

Array returns better time span results. So why do people prefer List<>.

Answer 1

List<> is an implementation of a data structure, which takes care of allocating memory on a on-demand basis; it allows for insertion and deletion at any index etc. Therefore it is much more convenient than a simple array.

Under the hood, the current List<> implementation uses an array for storage, and the overhead when doing array-like operations is minimal. The added convenience is usually worth the little (if at all relevant) performance difference. Adding items is typically faster because the list allocates chunks of memory and doesn’t require a new allocation and copy on every add (compared to the pure array, where the Length is always bound to the size in memory).