👉 The term "associator" is often used in computer science to describe a data structure that allows for fast, efficient access and manipulation of elements within an array or list. In other words, it acts as a connection between elements in a container (such as an array or linked list) and provides a way to quickly access the next element without having to traverse the entire list.
For example, consider a singly linked list:
```
struct Node {
int data;
struct Node
next