It depends on what do you mean by "edit". You can edit array element immediately accessing it by index, but you will need some collection to add/insert/remove element.
Please read this nice article:
http://www.cforcoding.com/2009/12/mutability-arrays-and-cost-of-temporary.html[
^].
Basically, don't copy an array to collection and back. Create an array only at the very end, when you already know that you won't need to modify it. Using immutable collection is a good idea. In principle, you can get rid of arrays totally, which can be a viable decision in many cases.
—SA