Hringrásaraðra

Hringrásaraðra, also known as a circular array or ring buffer, is a data structure that uses a single, fixed-size buffer as if it were connected end-to-end. This structure is particularly useful for buffering data streams. When the buffer is full, new data is written into the oldest data, overwriting it.

The core idea of a hringrásaraðra is to manage a sequence of elements in a way that the last element is considered to be followed by the first element. This is typically implemented using an array and two pointers or indices: a read pointer and a write pointer. The read pointer indicates the next element to be read, and the write pointer indicates the next position to write a new element.

When the write pointer reaches the end of the underlying array, it wraps around to the beginning. Similarly, when the read pointer reaches the end, it also wraps around. This creates the illusion of a continuous loop.

Hringrásaraðra find common applications in areas such as operating system processes, where they can be used for inter-process communication or for managing input/output streams. They are also frequently employed in network protocols for buffering packets and in audio processing for handling audio samples. The fixed size of the buffer makes memory management straightforward and efficient, avoiding dynamic resizing overhead. This makes them a performant choice for many real-time applications.