(computer science) The ability to read or write information anywhere within a storage device in an amount of time that is constant regardless of the location of the information accessed and of the location of the information previously accessed. Also known as direct access. A process in which data are accessed in nonsequential order and possibly at irregular intervals of time. Also known as single reference.
Random access
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(′ran·dəm ′ak′ses)
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IN BRIEF: Permitting the user to approach in any order desired; Retrievable in any order desired.
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In computer science, random access (sometimes called direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time. The opposite is sequential access, where a remote element takes longer time to access. A typical illustration of this distinction is to compare an ancient scroll (sequential; all material prior to the data needed must be unrolled) and the book (random: can be immediately flipped open to any random page. A more modern example is a cassette tape (sequential—you have to fast-forward through earlier songs to get to later ones) and a compact disc (random access—you can jump right to the track you want). The term random access memory (RAM), however, is used for semiconductor chip memory circuits used in computers. (The term was also used to describe ferrite-core memory in early computers).
In data structures, random access implies the ability to access the Nth entry in a list of numbers in constant time. Very few data structures can guarantee this, other than arrays (and related structures like dynamic arrays). Random access is critical to many algorithms such as quicksort and binary search. Other data structures, such as linked lists, sacrifice random access to make for efficient inserts, deletes, or reordering of data.
See also
- In a Data stream there is no random access
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| Translations: Random-access |
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - random-access (edb)
idioms:
- random-access memory random-access memory (edb), RAM (edb)
Français (French)
adj. - accès sélectif/aléatoire
idioms:
- random-access memory (Comput) mémoire vive
Deutsch (German)
adj. - mit direktem Zugriff
idioms:
- random-access memory (Comp.) Direktzugriffsspeicher
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (Η/Υ) τυχαίας προσπέλασης
idioms:
- random-access memory (Η/Υ) μνήμη τυχαίας προσπέλασης
Italiano (Italian)
ad accesso casuale
idioms:
- random-access memory memoria ad accesso casuale
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - acesso aleatório
idioms:
- random-access memory memória de acesso aleatório
Русский (Russian)
непосредственный доступ комп. информации
idioms:
- random-access memory оперативное запоминающее устройство
Español (Spanish)
adj. - acceso aleatorio
idioms:
- random-access memory memoria de acceso aleatorio
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - (data) adresserbart (motsats t sekventiell)
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
随机存取的
idioms:
- random-access memory 即内存, 随机存取内存
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 隨機存取的
idioms:
- random-access memory 即記憶體, 隨機存取記憶體
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - ランダムアクセスの
idioms:
- random-access memory ランダムアクセスメモリー
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - של גישה אקראית או ישירה (לא לפי סדר האחסנה) לנתונים במחשב
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