Performance Considerations

Proplists are lists, which means their performance characteristics are list characteristics:

• Lookup: O(n) — must traverse from the head until finding the key
• Multiple lookups: O(n*m) where m is the number of lookups
• Deletion: O(n) — must traverse the entire list
• Insertion: O(1) at the head (via cons), but this doesn’t help if you need to update a value

For small option lists (fewer than ~20 entries), this doesn’t matter. For larger collections or when lookup performance is critical, use maps or consider:

• Converting to a map once and using maps functions thereafter
• Using proplists:to_map/1 at the boundary between external and internal representations
• Caching frequently accessed values rather than repeatedly calling get_value/2

The rule of thumb: if you’re calling get_value/2 in a loop or frequently within a hot path, you’re probably using the wrong data structure.