What is Locality of reference?
'''Locality of reference''' is a [[phenomenon]] that can be seen in [[Computer science]]. It says that the same value, or the place where it is stored is accessed often. There are two different kinds of [[wikt:locality|locality]] of reference: *''Temporal locality'': If a value is referenced, there is a high probability it will be referenced again a short time from now *''Spatial locality'': A value is stored in a certain location in storage (memory, disk,..). If this location is referenced, it is very probable that locations that are physically close to it will be referenced as well. ==Reasons== There are many reasons why locality of reference occurs: *''Predictability'': Well-written programs only behave in a predictable way. *''Structure of the program'': Often programs act on several items, one at a time. This item will be accessed more than once as computation or processing is done. *''Linear data structures'': Programs may have loops that act on [[array]]s or lists. They reference an item by its index in the array or list. ==Uses== Programs can be optimised in certain ways, to make them run faster: *Increase the locality of reference by changing the program *Hardware can be built to exploit the locality of reference. *[[Caching]] is very successful because of locality of reference. {{Tech-stub}} [[Category:Computer science]]