arrays figure graphs some big relationships between time and number of items based on this graphwe might rate the various big values (very subjectivelylike thiso( is excellento(log nis goodo(nis fairand ( is poor ( occurs in the bubble sort and also in certain graph algorithms that we'll look at later in this book ( number of steps ( (log ( number of items (nfigure graph of big times the idea in big notation isn' to give actual figures for running times but to convey how the running times are affected by the number of items this is the most meaningful way to compare algorithmsexcept perhaps actually measuring running times in real installation why not use arrays for everythingarrays seem to get the job doneso why not use them for all data storagewe've already seen some of their disadvantages in an unordered array you can insert items