Implementing Doubly Linked Lists in Swift
Article Summary
Oleg Tsibulevskiy from Just Eat Takeaway breaks down why choosing the wrong data structure could be killing your iOS app's performance. Spoiler: Arrays aren't always the answer.
This deep dive explores doubly linked lists in Swift, comparing their performance characteristics against dynamic arrays. Tsibulevskiy walks through a complete implementation with practical code examples, from basic operations to Swift protocol conformance.
Key Takeaways
- Insert at beginning: DLL achieves O(1) vs Array's O(n) complexity
- Complete implementation includes AddFirst, AddLast, Insert, Delete, and iteration
- Swift Sequence protocol enables native map and for-loop support
- Perfect for music players, browser history, and card game mechanics
Critical Insight
Doubly linked lists outperform arrays for insertion/deletion operations but trade off direct index access, making them ideal for sequential navigation use cases.
