Hi Guys! I found `elementAt()` function on collections, I started to wonder which one is better for ...

# announcements

[Ch8n]

Hi Guys! I found elementAt() function on collections, I started to wonder which one is better for getting values, elementAt() or get() .. Found only this line element at is useful for collections that do not provide indexed access, or are not statically known to provide one. , so does that mean elementAt() is useful for non-index-based collection? like LinkedList? maps? graphs? Even examples show https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin.collections/element-at.html arrays and List sample not other once.. is it because there is only list, set, and map in collections of Kotlin?

[ephemient]

Array.get() is O(1) constant time
List.get() is usually O(1) constant time (although this is not true for LinkedList, but there's practically no reason to use that)
Iterable<T>.elementAt() for other types is a linear walk of the iterator, so it takes O(n) time, and if you're using it while traversing a whole collection, that's O(n²) time
so elementAt() may be useful sometimes, but if you're using it repeatedly or with anything other than small indices you should reconsider, IMO

[Ch8n]

@ephemient very insight full 🙏