# Removing the First Item: Linked List vs. Array **URL:** \ **Category:** random\ **Created:** [May 5, 2023, 4:56am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/removing-the-first-item-linked-list-vs-array/658556 "2023-05-05T04:56:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kirupa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kirupa/32/11616_2.png) [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 4:56am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/removing-the-first-item-linked-list-vs-array/658556/1 "2023-05-05T04:56:19Z")
For fun, I decided to calculate how much faster a linked list is at removing the first item compared to an array (using `array.shift()`). As it turns out, on average, when dealing with 10,000 items, a linked list is about 400% faster compared to an array. Here is the example: ```auto Document ``` ---
**Author:** ![PAEz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/paez/32/19607_2.png) [@PAEz](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/PAEz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 7:08am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/removing-the-first-item-linked-list-vs-array/658556/2 "2023-05-05T07:08:57Z")
Yeah, but ya cheating 😜 At not time do you actually remove an item, you only change a reference to what the first item is. The item that was originally pointed to still exists. Wonder how the GC would eventually react to this. ---
**Author:** ![kirupa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kirupa/32/11616_2.png) [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/removing-the-first-item-linked-list-vs-array/658556/3 "2023-05-05T13:48:03Z")
That would be an implementation detail 😅 If you remove the last item, the performance between both are very similar!