array vs vector vs list

Question

I am maintaining a fixed-length table of 10 entries. Each item is a structure of like 4 fields. There will be insert, update and delete operations, specified by numeric posi

Answer 1

First a couple of notes:

A good rule of thumb about selecting data structures: Generally, if you examined all the possibilities and determined that an array is your best choice, start over. You did something very wrong.

STL lists don't support operator[], and if they did the reason that it would be slower than indexing an array has nothing to do with the overhead of a function call.

Those things being said, vector is the clear winner here. The call to operator[] is essentially negligible since the contents of a vector are guaranteed to be contiguous in memory. It supports insert() and erase() operations which you would essntially have to write yourself if you used an array. Basically it boils down to the fact that a vector is essentially an upgraded array which already supports all the operations you need.