An efficient implementation of trie structures

Abstract A new internal array structure, called a double‐array , implementing a trie structure is presented. The double‐array combines the fast access of a matrix form with the compactness of a list form. The algorithms for retrieval, insertion and deletion are introduced through examples. Although insertion is rather slow, it is still practical, and both the deletion and the retrieval time can be improved from the list form. From the comparison with the list for various large sets of keys, it is shown that the size of the double‐array can be about 17 per cent smaller than that of the list, and that the retrieval speed of the double‐array can be from 3–1 to 5–1 times faster than that of the list.