Algorithm Efficiency
Take, for example, the ADTs for the ordered list
operation RETRIEVE;
remember, it retrieves a value of the item in the Nth
position in the ordered list.
In the array based implementation, the Nth item can be
accessed directly (it is stored in position N). This
access is INDEPENDENT OF N!
Therefore, RETRIEVE takes the same amount of time
to access either the 100th item or the first item in the
list. Thus, an array based implementation of
RETRIEVE is O(1).