# Julia performance for pointer based data structures?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-performance-for-pointer-based-data-structures/65992>\
**Category:** Performance\
**Created:** [August 7, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-performance-for-pointer-based-data-structures/65992 "2021-08-07T16:33:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![greatpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@greatpet](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/greatpet)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-performance-for-pointer-based-data-structures/65992/1 "2021-08-07T16:33:30Z")

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Ignoring GC costs, does the lack of raw pointers cause possible performance issues (compared to C) if you want to implement pointer-based data structures like linked lists and trees? Julia exposes some pointers for C interrop - is this also useful for writing low-level data structures within Julia?

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**Author:** ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-performance-for-pointer-based-data-structures/65992/2 "2021-08-07T16:38:27Z")

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> **[Number crunching: Why you should never, ever, EVER use linked-list in your...](https://kjellkod.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/why-you-should-never-ever-ever-use-linked-list-in-your-code-again/)**
>
> \[Shameless Plug Warning\] : You have until August 31st, 2017 to try out NetMon and participate in LogRhythm’s Network security contest. Win up to $18,000 when applying your scripting skills to…

> [@greatpet](#):
>
> lack of raw pointers

[https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/c/#Base.pointer](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/c/#Base.pointer)

[https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/c/#Core.Ptr](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/c/#Core.Ptr)

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**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-performance-for-pointer-based-data-structures/65992/3 "2021-08-07T16:53:11Z")

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> [@greatpet](#):
>
> is this also useful for writing low-level data structures within Julia?

You don’t usually work with pointers directly in julia. If anything, you’d use `Ref` or mutable structs. The pointers are handled for you by the compiler.