English Dictionary
sparse
adj : not dense; "a thin beard"; "trees were sparse" [syn: {thin}]
English Computing Dictionary
sparse
A sparse {matrix} (or {vector}, or {array}) is one in which
most of the elements are zero. If storage space is more
important than access speed, it may be preferable to store a
sparse matrix as a list of (index, value) pairs or use some
kind of {hash} scheme or {associative memory}.
(1995-01-16)