arrays why study arraysyou will notice the array structure looks very similar to python' list structure that' because the two structures are both sequences that are composed of multiple sequential elements that can be accessed by position but there are two major differences between the array and the list firstan array has limited number of operationswhich commonly include those for array creationreading value from specific elementand writing value to specific element the liston the other handprovides large number of operations for working with the contents of the list secondthe list can grow and shrink during execution as elements are added or removed while the size of an array cannot be changed after it has been created you may be wonderingif python provides the list structure as its mutable sequence typewhy are we bothering to discuss the array structuremuch less plan to implement an abstract data type for working with arrays in pythonthe short answer is that both structures have their uses there are many problems that only require the use of basic array in which the number of elements is known beforehand and the flexible set of operations available with the list is not needed the array is best suited for problems requiring sequence in which the maximum number of elements are known up frontwhereas the list is the better choice when the size of the sequence needs to change after it has been created as you will learn later in the list contains more storage space than is needed to store the items currently in the list this extra spacethe size of which can be up to twice the necessary capacityallows for quick and easy expansion as new items are added to the list but the extra space is wasteful when using list to store fixed number of elements for examplesuppose we need sequence structure with elements we could create list with the given number of elements using the replication operatorvalues none but underneaththis results in the allocation of space for up to , elementshalf of which will go to waste in this casean array would be better choice the decision as to whether an array or list should be used is not limited to the size of the sequence structure it also depends on how it will be used the list provides large set of operations for managing the items contained in the list some of these include inserting an item at specific locationsearching for an itemremoving an item by value or locationeasily extracting subset of itemsand sorting the items the array structureon the other handonly provides limited set of operations for accessing the individual elements comprising the array thusif the problem at hand requires these types of operationsthe list is the better choice the array abstract data type the array structure is commonly found in most programming languages as primitive typebut python only provides the list structure for creating mutable se