4 ms·

what's your method for quickly searching an ordered list? Binary search falls apart since you don't have free random access.

• qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  Skip lists allow for that, sort of. In Lisp, most people would just, you know, not use a list for that. You can do that, you know... The only reason I asked about lispers is that lispers really like lisps, and I was curious if any of them had implemented skip lists for some reason, and if so, how.
  • andars 10y ago
    > ... just, you know ... you know ... Yes, I know. Do you? You made the suggestion that skip lists are inferior to ordered lists, not me. (good for "increasing access times on ordered lists") I'm still perplexed as to your rationale for that statement.
    • qwertyuiop924 10y ago
      No, I didn't, AFAIK. I'm baffled as to where you drew that from...
      • cronjobber 10y ago
        Maybe because you wrote "increasing access times", which could be read as "skip lists are slower." Not what you meant, probably.
        • andars 10y ago
          This was my understanding of that comment. How else could that be read? I am not able to think of another interpretation of that statement or a context when increased access times would be desired.
          • qwertyuiop924 10y ago
            The intended interpretation is that skip lists make access to specific items in ordered lists faster. I am actually a native speaker, so I have no excuse here. I just suck at writing, I guess...