linked list
compound.compound. a way of storing data in a computer where each item points to the next one in a chain. Unlike a simple list, the items do not have to be stored next to each other in the computer's memory.
compound. a linear data structure consisting of a sequence of elements where each element, or node, contains a reference to the subsequent node in the series. This structure allows for efficient insertion and removal of elements without reorganising the entire collection.
A linked list makes it easy to add new items in the middle.
The developer chose a linked list to manage the undo history because it allows for constant-time insertions at the beginning of the sequence.
While a linked list offers flexibility for dynamic memory allocation, it suffers from slower access times compared to arrays because the computer must traverse each node sequentially to reach a specific index.
A compound of the past participle linked and the noun list. The term was established by Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert A. Simon at the RAND Corporation around 1955 and 1956 during the development of the Information Processing Language.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Commonly used in computer science contexts; often contrasted with 'array' or 'vector'.
Last updated July 22, 2026