Edit
Please read the comments to this answer. People claim I did not do proper tests. I agree this should not be an accepted answer. As I was learning I did some tests and felt like sharing them.
Original answer…
I found interesting results:
// Temporary class to show the example class Temp { public decimal A, B, C, D; public Temp(decimal a, decimal b, decimal c, decimal d) { A = a; B = b; C = c; D = d; } }
Linked list (3.9 seconds)
LinkedList<Temp> list = new LinkedList<Temp>(); for (var i = 0; i < 12345678; i++) { var a = new Temp(i, i, i, i); list.AddLast(a); } decimal sum = 0; foreach (var item in list) sum += item.A;
List (2.4 seconds)
List<Temp> list = new List<Temp>(); // 2.4 seconds for (var i = 0; i < 12345678; i++) { var a = new Temp(i, i, i, i); list.Add(a); } decimal sum = 0; foreach (var item in list) sum += item.A;
Even if you only access data essentially it is much slower!! I say never use a linkedList.
Here is another comparison performing a lot of inserts (we plan on inserting an item at the middle of the list)
Linked List (51 seconds)
LinkedList<Temp> list = new LinkedList<Temp>(); for (var i = 0; i < 123456; i++) { var a = new Temp(i, i, i, i); list.AddLast(a); var curNode = list.First; for (var k = 0; k < i/2; k++) // In order to insert a node at the middle of the list we need to find it curNode = curNode.Next; list.AddAfter(curNode, a); // Insert it after } decimal sum = 0; foreach (var item in list) sum += item.A;
List (7.26 seconds)
List<Temp> list = new List<Temp>(); for (var i = 0; i < 123456; i++) { var a = new Temp(i, i, i, i); list.Insert(i / 2, a); } decimal sum = 0; foreach (var item in list) sum += item.A;
Linked List having reference of location where to insert (.04 seconds)
list.AddLast(new Temp(1,1,1,1)); var referenceNode = list.First; for (var i = 0; i < 123456; i++) { var a = new Temp(i, i, i, i); list.AddLast(a); list.AddBefore(referenceNode, a); } decimal sum = 0; foreach (var item in list) sum += item.A;
So only if you plan on inserting several items and you also somewhere have the reference of where you plan to insert the item then use a linked list. Just because you have to insert a lot of items it does not make it faster because searching the location where you will like to insert it takes time.