We present a new data structure, called a random-access list, that supports array lookup and update operations in O(log n) time, while simultaneously providing O(1) time list operations (cons, head, tail). A closer analysis of the array operations improves the bound to O(minfi; log ng) in the worst case and O(log i) in the expected case, where i is the index of the desired element. Empirical evidence suggests that this data structure should be quite efficient in practice. 1 Introduction Lists are the primary data structure in every functional programmer 's toolbox. They are simple, convenient, and usually quite efficient. The main drawback of lists is that accessing the ith element requires O(i) time. In such situations, functional programmers often find themselves longing for the efficient random access of arrays. Unfortunately, arrays can be quite awkward to implement in a functional setting, where previous versions of the array must be available even after an update. Since arra...

Arrays are probably the most widely used data structure in imperative programming languages, yet functional languages typically only support arrays in a limited manner, or prohibit them entirely. This is not too surprising, since most other mutable data structures, such as trees, have elegant immutable analogues in the functional world, whereas arrays do not. Previous attempts at addressing the problem have suffered from one of three weaknesses, either that they don't support arrays as a persistent data structure (unlike the functional analogues of other imperative data structures), or that the range of operations is too restrictive to support some common array algorithms efficiently, or that they have performance problems. Our technique provides arrays as a true functional analogue of imperative arrays with the properties that functional programmers have come to expect from their data structures. To efficiently support array algorithms from the imperative world, we provide O(1) operations for single-threaded array use. Fully persistent array use can also be provided at O(1) amortized cost, provided that the algorithm satisfies a simple requirement as to uniformity of access. For those algorithms which do not access the array uniformly or single-threadedly, array reads or updates take at most O(log n) amortized time, where n is the size of the array. Experimental results indicate that the overheads of our technique are acceptable in practice for many applications.

The design and implementation of efficient aggregate data structures has been an important issue in functional programming. It is not clear how to select a good representation for an aggregate when access patterns to the aggregate are highly variant, or even unpredictable. Previous approaches rely on compile--time analyses or programmer annotations. These methods can be unreliable because they try to predict program behaviors before they are executed. We propose a probabilistic approach, which is based on Markov processes, for automatic selection of data representations. The selection is modeled as a random process moving in a graph with weighted edges. The proposed approach employs coin tossing at run--time to aid choosing suitable data representations. The transition probability function used by the coin tossing is constructed in a simple and common way from a measured cost function. We show that, under this setting, random selection of data representations can be quite effective. Th...