One of the drawbacks of linked lists (besides the time it takes to access elements that are deep within the list) is their space usage. Each node in a DLList requires an additional two references to the next and previous nodes in the list. Two thirds of the fields in a Node are dedicated to maintaining the list and only one third of the fields are for storing data!
An SEList (space-efficient list) reduces this wasted space using a simple idea: Rather than store individual elements in a DLList, we store a block (array) containing several items. More precisely, an SEList is parameterized by a block size . Each individual node in an SEList stores a block that can hold up to elements.
It will turn out, for reasons that become clear later, that it will be helpful if we can do Deque operations on each block. The data structure we choose for this is a BDeque (bounded deque), derived from the ArrayDeque structure described in Section 2.4. The BDeque differs from the ArrayDeque in one small way: When a new BDeque is created, the size of the backing array is fixed at and it never grows or shrinks. The important property of a BDeque is that it allows for the addition or removal of elements at either the front or back in constant time. This will be useful as elements are shifted from one block to another.
class BDeque extends ArrayDeque<T> { BDeque() { super(SEList.this.type()); a = newArray(b+1); } void resize() { } }
An SEList is then a doubly-linked list of blocks:
class Node { BDeque d; Node prev, next; }
int n; Node dummy;
An SEList places very tight restrictions on the number of elements in a block: Unless a block is the last block, then that block contains at least and at most elements. This means that, if an SEList contains elements, then it has at most
The first challenge we face with an SEList is finding the list item with a given index . Note that the location of an element consists of two parts: The node that contains the block that contains the element as well as the index of the element within its block.
class Location { Node u; int j; Location(Node u, int j) { this.u = u; this.j = j; } }
To find the block that contains a particular element, we proceed in the same way as in a DLList. We either start at the front of the list and traverse in the forward direction or at the back of the list and traverse backwards until we reach the node we want. The only difference is that, each time we move from one node to the next, we skip over a whole block of elements.
Location getLocation(int i) { if (i < n/2) { Node u = dummy.next; while (i >= u.d.size()) { i -= u.d.size(); u = u.next; } return new Location(u, i); } else { Node u = dummy; int idx = n; while (i < idx) { u = u.prev; idx -= u.d.size(); } return new Location(u, i-idx); } }
Remember that, with the exception of at most one block, each block contains at least elements, so each step in our search gets us elements closer to the element we are looking for. If we are searching forward, this means we reach the node we want after steps. If we search backwards, we reach the node we want after steps. The algorithm takes the smaller of these two quantities depending on the value of , so the time to locate the item with index is .
Once we know how to locate the item with index , the and operations translate into getting or setting a particular index in the correct block:
T get(int i) { if (i < 0 || i > n - 1) throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(); Location l = getLocation(i); return l.u.d.get(l.j); } T set(int i, T x) { if (i < 0 || i > n - 1) throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(); Location l = getLocation(i); T y = l.u.d.get(l.j); l.u.d.set(l.j,x); return y; }
These operations are dominated by the time it takes to locate the item, so they also run in time.
Things start to get complicated when adding elements to an SEList. Before considering the general case, we consider the easier operation, , in which is added to the end of the list. If the last block is full (or does not exist because there are no blocks yet), then we first allocate a new block and append it to the list of blocks. Now that we are sure that the last block exists and is not full, we append to the last block.
boolean add(T x) { Node last = dummy.prev; if (last == dummy || last.d.size() == b+1) { last = addBefore(dummy); } last.d.add(x); n++; return true; }
Things get more complicated when we add to the interior of the list using . We first locate to get the node whose block contains the th list item. The problem is that we want to insert into 's block, but we have to be prepared for the case where 's block already contains elements, so that it is full and there is no room for .
Let denote , , , and so on. We explore looking for a node that can provide space for . Three cases can occur during our space exploration (see Figure 3.3):
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void add(int i, T x) { if (i < 0 || i > n) throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(); if (i == n) { add(x); return; } Location l = getLocation(i); Node u = l.u; int r = 0; while (r < b && u != dummy && u.d.size() == b+1) { u = u.next; r++; } if (r == b) { // found b blocks each with b+1 elements spread(l.u); u = l.u; } if (u == dummy) { // ran off the end of the list - add new node u = addBefore(u); } while (u != l.u) { // work backwards, shifting an element at each step u.d.add(0, u.prev.d.remove(u.prev.d.size()-1)); u = u.prev; } u.d.add(l.j, x); n++; }
The running time of the operation depends on which of the three cases above occurs. Cases 1 and 2 involve examining and shifting elements through at most blocks and take time. Case 3 involves calling the method, which moves elements and takes time. If we ignore the cost of Case 3 (which we will account for later with amortization) this means that the total running time to locate and perform the insertion of is .
Removing an element, using the method from an SEList is similar to adding an element. We first locate the node that contains the element with index . Now, we have to be prepared for the case where we cannot remove an element from without causing 's block to have size less than , which is not allowed.
Again, let denote , , , We examine in order looking for a node from which we can borrow an element to make the size of 's block larger than . There are three cases to consider (see Figure 3.4):
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T remove(int i) { if (i < 0 || i > n - 1) throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(); Location l = getLocation(i); T y = l.u.d.get(l.j); Node u = l.u; int r = 0; while (r < b && u != dummy && u.d.size() == b-1) { u = u.next; r++; } if (r == b) { // found b blocks each with b-1 elements gather(l.u); } u = l.u; u.d.remove(l.j); while (u.d.size() < b-1 && u.next != dummy) { u.d.add(u.next.d.remove(0)); u = u.next; } if (u.d.isEmpty()) remove(u); n--; return y; }
Like the operation, the running time of the operation is if we ignore the cost of the method that occurs in Case 3.
Next, we consider the cost of the and methods that may be executed by the and methods. For completeness, here they are:
void spread(Node u) { Node w = u; for (int j = 0; j < b; j++) { w = w.next; } w = addBefore(w); while (w != u) { while (w.d.size() < b) w.d.add(0,w.prev.d.remove(w.prev.d.size()-1)); w = w.prev; } }
void gather(Node u) { Node w = u; for (int j = 0; j < b-1; j++) { while (w.d.size() < b) w.d.add(w.next.d.remove(0)); w = w.next; } remove(w); }
The running time of each of these methods is dominated by the two nested loops. Both the inner loop and outer loop execute at most times, so the total running time of each of these methods is . However, the following lemma shows that these methods execute on at most one out of every calls to or .
Notice that, if Case 1 occurs during the method, then only one node, has the size of its block changed. Therefore, at most one node, namely , goes from being rugged to being fragile. If Case 2 occurs, then a new node is created, and this node is fragile, but no other node changes sizes, so the number of fragile nodes increases by one. Thus, in either Case 1 or Case 2 the potential of the SEList increases by at most 1.
Finally, if Case 3 occurs, it is because are all fragile nodes. Then is called and these fragile nodes are replaced with rugged nodes. Finally, is added to 's block, making fragile. In total the potential decreases by .
In summary, the potential starts at 0 (there are no nodes in the list). Each time Case 1 or Case 2 occurs, the potential increases by at most 1. Each time Case 3 occurs, the potential decreases by . The potential (which counts the number of fragile nodes) is never less than 0. We conclude that, for every occurrence of Case 3, there are at least occurrences of Case 1 or Case 2. Thus, for every call to there are at least calls to . This completes the proof.
The following theorem summarizes the performance of the SEList data structure:
The space (measured in words)2 used by an SEList that stores elements is .
The SEList is a tradeoff between an ArrayList and a DLList where the relative mix of these two structures depends on the block size . At the extreme , each SEList node stores at most 3 values, which is really not much different than a DLList. At the other extreme, , all the elements are stored in a single array, just like in an ArrayList. In between these two extremes lies a tradeoff between the time it takes to add or remove a list item and the time it takes to locate a particular list item.