Comparison of Execution Efficiency of the Use of a Skip List and Simple List in a .NET Application

Abstract

A single level linked list (a simple list) is a dynamic data structure that is used for storing data in applications. However, there are also multi-level linked lists (called skip lists) that are more complicated for creating, but searching for the required data elements in them is more efficient because they allow us to skip to the correct element in them. We have created a C# object-oriented .NET application that uses both lists, a skip and simple list, with structured data in their data elements. By using our C# application we want to compare the execution efficiency of the use of these lists, therefore the same structured data of students is stored in the data elements of its skip and simple list. Our C# application is able to carry out basic operations with these data elements of a skip and simple list, such as searching for students (data elements) according to their points for accommodation, their year of birth, their surname and according to their ISIC in both lists, inserting of a new student (a data element) sorted into both lists etc., and simultaneously it is able to measure the execution times of particular operations. By comparing these times we have examined the execution efficiency of these operations in a skip list and in a simple list. The results and evaluation of this examination are listed in the paper.