Elixir Language Data Structures
Syntax
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[head | tail] = [1, 2, 3, true] # one can use pattern matching to break up cons cells. This assigns head to 1 and tail to [2, 3, true]
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%{d: val} = %{d: 1, e: true} # this assigns val to 1; no variable d is created because the d on the lhs is really just a symbol that is used to create the pattern %{:d => _} (note that hash rocket notation allows one to have non-symbols as keys for maps just like in ruby)
Remarks
As for which data structure to us here are some brief remarks.
If you need an array data structure if you're going to be doing a lot of writing use lists. If instead you are going to be doing a lot of read you should use tuples.
As for maps they are just simply how you do key value stores.
