VectorString

VectorString is a data structure that combines a dynamic array (vector) with strings, representing a collection where each element is an individual string. It is a common abstraction in languages that provide vector-like containers and is used to store and manipulate sequences of textual elements efficiently. In practice, a VectorString typically refers to a container such as a vector of strings in C++, an ArrayList<String> in Java, or a Vec<String> in Rust.

Data model and storage considerations vary by language, but the core idea remains consistent: the container owns or references a contiguous block of memory for the string objects and manages dynamic resizing as elements are added or removed. Each string element may have its own heap-allocated storage, sometimes with internal optimizations like small-string optimization. The container handles capacity management, often growing by a constant factor to amortize reallocation costs.

Common operations include construction, pushing or appending strings, accessing by index, inserting or removing elements, resizing, clearing, and sorting. Access and iteration are typically O(1) for indexing and O(n) for mid-sequence insertions or removals. Growing the container is usually amortized O(1) per element, while operations that rearrange memory may trigger a reallocation.

Use cases for VectorString include storing tokenized text, lines of a document, log entries, or results from string-processing pipelines. It offers random access, efficient iteration, and straightforward integration with other vector- or list-like collections. Performance considerations include memory overhead for each string and the cost of reallocations during growth; strategies such as reserving capacity can mitigate these costs.

Alternative names reflect the same concept, such as a string array or a vector of strings, depending on the programming language and standard library terminology.