Editing Dynamic array (section)

{{Short description|List data structure to which elements can be added/removed}}
[[File:Dynamic array.svg|thumb|Several values are inserted at the end of a dynamic array using geometric expansion. Grey cells indicate space reserved for expansion. Most insertions are fast ([[constant time]]), while some are slow due to the need for [[Memory management|reallocation]] ({{math|Θ(''n'')}} time, labelled with turtles). The ''logical size'' and ''capacity'' of the final array are shown.]]

In [[computer science]], a '''dynamic array''', '''growable array''', '''resizable array''', '''dynamic table''', '''mutable array''', or '''array list''' is a [[random access]], variable-size [[list data structure]] that allows elements to be added or removed. It is supplied with [[standard libraries]] in many modern mainstream [[programming language]]s. Dynamic arrays overcome a limit of static [[array data type|arrays]], which have a fixed capacity that needs to be specified at [[Memory management|allocation]].

A dynamic array is not the same thing as a [[dynamic memory allocation|dynamically allocated]] array or [[variable-length array]], either of which is an array whose size is fixed when the array is allocated, although a dynamic array may use such a fixed-size array as a back end.<ref name="java_util_ArrayList">See, for example, the [http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk6/jdk6/jdk/file/e0e25ac28560/src/share/classes/java/util/ArrayList.java source code of java.util.ArrayList class from OpenJDK 6].</ref>