Pseudoketju

Pseudoketju is a term sometimes used in informal discussions related to computer programming and algorithms, particularly within communities focused on functional programming or specific language paradigms. It refers to a situation where a program appears to be constructing or processing a list or sequence, but the underlying implementation doesn't actually create a distinct, persistent "chain" of data in the way a traditional linked list might. Instead, it might be generating elements on-the-fly or utilizing generator functions that yield values as needed, without storing the entire sequence in memory.

The concept often arises when discussing performance optimizations or idiomatic ways of handling data streams. For example, a function might be designed to iterate over a potentially large set of data without allocating memory for the entire collection at once. This "pseudoketju" behavior can offer memory efficiency advantages, especially when dealing with large datasets or infinite sequences. It's not a formal data structure with a universally agreed-upon definition but rather a descriptive term for a pattern of computation that mimics sequence processing without the explicit overhead of a traditional linked list or array. Understanding this distinction can be helpful for developers aiming to write more efficient and scalable code, particularly in languages that support lazy evaluation or generator constructs.