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Pugh: skip lists as a probabilistic alternative to balanced trees

Introduced skip lists, using randomized multilevel linked structures to obtain expected logarithmic search, insertion and deletion with comparatively simple algorithms.

What is recorded here?

Introduced skip lists, using randomized multilevel linked structures to obtain expected logarithmic search, insertion and deletion with comparatively simple algorithms.

Source-linked catalogue note. A detailed explanatory guide has not yet been prepared for this entry.

Scientific scope

The record is Pugh’s sole-author 1990 Communications of the ACM paper. Its guarantees are probabilistic rather than worst-case balanced-tree guarantees, and later concurrent, deterministic and distributed variants remain separate.

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People and systems

William Pugh

The named authors contributed to this scoped work; individual effort shares and later applications are not assigned by the byline.

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Documented countries / regions: United States

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English catalogue narrative

Pugh: skip lists as a probabilistic alternative to balanced trees

Introduced skip lists, using randomized multilevel linked structures to obtain expected logarithmic search, insertion and deletion with comparatively simple algorithms.

Scientific scope

The record is Pugh’s sole-author 1990 Communications of the ACM paper. Its guarantees are probabilistic rather than worst-case balanced-tree guarantees, and later concurrent, deterministic and distributed variants remain separate.

Reading status

This is a source-linked WRS catalogue note. A full explanatory guide and independent scientific reconstruction have not been completed for this entry. Read the identified original work for its complete narrative and arguments.

People and systems

William Pugh

The named authors contributed to this scoped work; individual effort shares and later applications are not assigned by the byline.

Original sources