为什么有人想要使用链表而不是数组?
毫无疑问，编码一个链表比使用数组要多一些工作，人们可能会想知道如何才能证明这些额外的工作是合理的。
我认为在链表中插入新元素是微不足道的，但在数组中这是一个主要的任务。与将数据存储在数组中相比，使用链表存储一组数据还有其他优点吗?
这个问题不是这个问题的重复，因为另一个问题是专门问一个特定的Java类，而这个问题是关于一般数据结构的。
当前回答
除了插入到列表中间更容易之外——从链表中间删除也比从数组中删除容易得多。
但坦率地说，我从未使用过链表。每当我需要快速插入和删除时，我也需要快速查找，所以我使用HashSet或Dictionary。
其他回答
除了在列表中间进行添加和删除之外，我更喜欢链表，因为它们可以动态地增长和收缩。
Eric Lippert最近发表了一篇关于数组应该保守使用的原因之一的文章。
对我来说是这样的，
Access Linked Lists allow only sequential access to elements. Thus the algorithmic complexities is order of O(n) Arrays allow random access to its elements and thus the complexity is order of O(1) Storage Linked lists require an extra storage for references. This makes them impractical for lists of small data items such as characters or boolean values. Arrays do not need an extra storage to point to next data item. Each element can be accessed via indexes. Size The size of Linked lists are dynamic by nature. The size of array is restricted to declaration. Insertion/Deletion Elements can be inserted and deleted in linked lists indefinitely. Insertion/Deletion of values in arrays are very expensive. It requires memory reallocation.
合并两个链表(特别是两个双链表)比合并两个数组快得多(假设合并是破坏性的)。前者取O(1)，后者取O(n)。
编辑:澄清一下，我在这里指的是无序意义上的“合并”，而不是归并排序。也许"串联"这个词更合适。
维基百科上有很好的章节介绍了它们的区别。
Linked lists have several advantages over arrays. Elements can be inserted into linked lists indefinitely, while an array will eventually either fill up or need to be resized, an expensive operation that may not even be possible if memory is fragmented. Similarly, an array from which many elements are removed may become wastefully empty or need to be made smaller. On the other hand, arrays allow random access, while linked lists allow only sequential access to elements. Singly-linked lists, in fact, can only be traversed in one direction. This makes linked lists unsuitable for applications where it's useful to look up an element by its index quickly, such as heapsort. Sequential access on arrays is also faster than on linked lists on many machines due to locality of reference and data caches. Linked lists receive almost no benefit from the cache. Another disadvantage of linked lists is the extra storage needed for references, which often makes them impractical for lists of small data items such as characters or boolean values. It can also be slow, and with a naïve allocator, wasteful, to allocate memory separately for each new element, a problem generally solved using memory pools.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_list
