Skip lists: a probabilistic alternative to balanced trees

  • Authors:
  • William Pugh

  • Affiliations:
  • Univ. of Maryland, College Park

  • Venue:
  • Communications of the ACM
  • Year:
  • 1990

Quantified Score

Hi-index 48.22

Visualization

Abstract

Skip lists are data structures that use probabilistic balancing rather than strictly enforced balancing. As a result, the algorithms for insertion and deletion in skip lists are much simpler and significantly faster than equivalent algorithms for balanced trees.