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Implementation: List of Data Structures

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20 views

Implementation: List of Data Structures

Uploaded by

Maan Miralles
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Data structures serve as the basis for 

abstract data types (ADT). The ADT defines the logical form of


the data type. The data structure implements the physical form of the data type. [5]
Different types of data structures are suited to different kinds of applications, and some are highly
specialized to specific tasks. For example, relational databases commonly use B-tree indexes for
data retrieval,[6] while compiler implementations usually use hash tables to look up identifiers.[7]
Data structures provide a means to manage large amounts of data efficiently for uses such as
large databases and internet indexing services. Usually, efficient data structures are key to
designing efficient algorithms. Some formal design methods and programming
languages emphasize data structures, rather than algorithms, as the key organizing factor in
software design. Data structures can be used to organize the storage and retrieval of information
stored in both main memory and secondary memory.[8]

Implementation[edit]
Data structures are generally based on the ability of a computer to fetch and store data at any place
in its memory, specified by a pointer—a bit string, representing a memory address, that can be itself
stored in memory and manipulated by the program. Thus, the array and record data structures are
based on computing the addresses of data items with arithmetic operations, while the linked data
structures are based on storing addresses of data items within the structure itself.
The implementation of a data structure usually requires writing a set of procedures that create and
manipulate instances of that structure. The efficiency of a data structure cannot be analyzed
separately from those operations. This observation motivates the theoretical concept of an abstract
data type, a data structure that is defined indirectly by the operations that may be performed on it,
and the mathematical properties of those operations (including their space and time cost). [9]

Examples[edit]
Main article: List of data structures
There are numerous types of data structures, generally built upon simpler primitive data types:[10]

 An array is a number of elements in a specific order, typically all of the same type
(depending on the language, individual elements may either all be forced to be the same type, or
may be of almost any type). Elements are accessed using an integer index to specify which
element is required. Typical implementations allocate contiguous memory words for the
elements of arrays (but this is not always a necessity). Arrays may be fixed-length or resizable.
 A linked list (also just called list) is a linear collection of data elements of any type, called
nodes, where each node has itself a value, and points to the next node in the linked list. The
principal advantage of a linked list over an array is that values can always be efficiently inserted
and removed without relocating the rest of the list. Certain other operations, such as random
access to a certain element, are however slower on lists than on arrays.
 A record (also called tuple or struct) is an aggregate data structure. A record is a value that
contains other values, typically in fixed number and sequence and typically indexed by names.
The elements of records are usually called fields or members.
 A union is a data structure that specifies which of a number of permitted primitive types may
be stored in its instances, e.g. float or long integer. Contrast with a record, which could be
defined to contain a float and an integer; whereas in a union, there is only one value at a time.
Enough space is allocated to contain the widest member datatype.
 A tagged union (also called variant, variant record, discriminated union, or disjoint union)
contains an additional field indicating its current type, for enhanced type safety.
 An object is a data structure that contains data fields, like a record does, as well as
various methods which operate on the data contents. An object is an in-memory instance of a
class from a taxonomy. In the context of object-oriented programming, records are known
as plain old data structures to distinguish them from objects.[11]
In addition, graphs and binary trees are other commonly used data structures.

Language support[edit]
Most assembly languages and some low-level languages, such as BCPL (Basic Combined
Programming Language), lack built-in support for data structures. On the other hand, many high-
level programming languages and some higher-level assembly languages, such as MASM, have
special syntax or other built-in support for certain data structures, such as records and arrays. For
example, the C (a direct descendant of BCPL) and Pascal languages support structs and records,
respectively, in addition to vectors (one-dimensional arrays) and multi-dimensional arrays.[12][13]
Most programming languages feature some sort of library mechanism that allows data structure
implementations to be reused by different programs. Modern languages usually come with standard
libraries that implement the most common data structures. Examples are the C++ Standard
Template Library, the Java Collections Framework, and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
Modern languages also generally support modular programming, the separation between
the interface of a library module and its implementation. Some provide opaque data types that allow
clients to hide implementation details. Object-oriented programming languages, such as C++, Java,
and Smalltalk, typically use classes for this purpose.
Many known data structures have concurrent versions which allow multiple computing threads to
access a single concrete instance of a data structure simultaneously

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