NIST

orthogonal lists

(data structure)

Definition: Lists that share items, but are structurally independent.

Aggregate parent (I am a part of or used in ...)
sparse matrix.

Aggregate child (... is a part of or used in me.)
list.

Note: The lists are interweaved through items. For instance, we may keep people on three orthogonal lists by hair color, gender, and country of residence or data values in a sparse matrix on two orthogonal lists by row and column. Inserting an item means inserting it into each list as appropriate.

Author: PEB

More information

PowerPoint lecture notes of using orthogonal lists to implement a sparse matrix.


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If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.

Entry modified 19 February 2019.
HTML page formatted Wed Mar 13 12:42:46 2019.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "orthogonal lists", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed. 19 February 2019. (accessed TODAY) Available from: https://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/orthogonalLists.html