I'm trying to wrap my head around how to organize components in an Entity Component Systems once everything in the current scene/level is loaded in memory. (I'm a hobbyist BTW)

Some people seem to implement the Entity as an object that contains a list of of "Component" objects. Components contain data organized as an array of key-value pairs. Where the value is serialized "somehow".

(pseudocode is loosely in C# for brevity)

class Entity { 
  Guid _id;
  List<Component> _components;
}

class Component {
  List<ComponentAttributeValue> _attributes;
}

class ComponentAttributeValue {
  string AttributeName;
  object AttributeValue;
}

Others describe Components as an in-memory "table". An entity acquires the component by having its key placed in a table. The attributes of the component-entity instance are like the columns in a table

class Renderable_Component {
  List<RenderableComponentAttributeValue> _entities;
}

class RenderableComponentAttributeValue {
  Guid entityId;
  matrix4 transformation;
  // other stuff for rendering 
  // everything is strongly typed
}

Others describe this actually as a table. (and such tables sound like an EAV database schema BTW) (and the value is serialized "somehow")

Render_Component_Table
----------------
Entity Id
Attribute Name
Attribute Value

and when brought into running code:

class Entity {
 Guid _id;
 Dictionary<string, object> _attributes;
}

My specific question is: Given various components, (Renderable, Positionable, Explodeable, Hideable, etc) and given that each component has an attribute with a particular name, (TRANSLATION_MATRIX, PARTICLE_EMISSION_VELOCITY, CAN_HIDE, FAVORITE_COLOR, etc) should:

• an entity contain a list of components where each component, in turn, has their own array of named attributes with values serialized somehow

or

• should components exist as in-memory tables of entity references and associated with each "row" there are "columns" representing the attribute with values that are specific to each entity instance and are strongly typed

or

• all attributes be stored in an entity as a singular array of named attributes with values serialized somehow (could have name collisions)

or

• something else???