Data Structures and Algorithms

date: Apr 05, 2026

Arrays

An array is a collection of items stored at contiguous (unbreakable) memory locations.

const a = new ArrayBuffer(6);
const a8 = new Uint8Array(a);

// ArrayBuffer { [Uint8Contents]: <00 00 00 00 00 00>, [byteLength]: 6 }

In JavaScript, arrays aren't primitives but are instead Array objects with special characteristics.

const a = []; // This isn't an actual array.

Linear search is the most straightforward way to find a specific value in a collection of data. We find our needle by walking through the array and checking for the needle with a conditional statement. Worst case time complexity would be O(n).

function linear_search(heystack: number[], needle: number): boolean {
  for (let i = 0; i < heystack.length; i++) {
    if (heystack[i] === needle) {
      return true;
    }
  }
  return false;
}