ABSTRACT
In linear lists accessed directly, an element can be accessed directly without visiting its predecessor or successor. An array is one of these kinds of data structure.
An array is a set of data elements with the same type stored in a continuous area and with fixed length. A one-dimensional array (or single-dimension array) is a typical linear list accessed directly. Arrays can also have more than one dimension, such as two-dimensional arrays that can be used to represent matrices. Such an array is called a multidimensional array. In an array, indexes of data elements indirectly show their memory addresses, and data elements can be accessed directly. Therefore, time complexity for the access of one element in the array is O(1). In this sense, the storage structure of an array is a structure of direct access. For example, a string is a direct access structure. In a string, any character can be accessed directly.
