Question

I started reading Algorithm Design Manual, and while reading it I came across one line which I am not getting. Can someone please clarify me what does author mean here? The line is:

Sorted linked lists or arrays – Maintaining a sorted linked list is usually
not worth the effort unless you are trying to eliminate duplicates, since we
cannot perform binary searches in such a data structure. A sorted array will
be appropriate if and only if there are not many insertions or deletions.

This line is in context with choosing data structure for dictionary.
The point that I am not getting is, why does author says that “Maintaining a sorted linked list is usuallynot worth the effort unless you are trying to eliminate duplicates, since we
cannot perform binary searches in such a data structure“

From what I understood I googled to see if we can binary search on sorted arrays and based on what I found it looks like we can. So I am not sure.

Can someone please help me understand this?

Thanks so much.

Answer 1

You cannot perform binary search on linked list efficiently because you cannot randomly seek in it in constant time. To find the midpoint you have to do n/2 steps (traverse the list). This adds a great overhead and makes lists unsuitable for binary search data structures.