introduction to data structure

Data Structure is an arrangement of data in a computer’s memory (or sometimes on a disk).
Data structures include arrays, linked lists, stacks, binary trees, and hash tables, among others.
Algorithms manipulate the data in these structures in various ways, such as searching for a
particular data item and sorting the data.
Overview of Data Structures
Another way to look at data structures is to focus on their strengths and weaknesses.A data type consists of
• a domain (= a set of values)
• A set of operations.
Example 1: Boolean or logical data type provided by most programming languages.
• Two values: true, false.
• Many operations, including: AND, OR, NOT, etc.
Abstract Data Type (ADT): The basic idea behind an abstract data type is the separation of
the use of the data type from its implementation (i.e., what an abstract data type does can be
specified separately from how it is done through its implementation)
The advantages of using the ADT approach are:
1. The implementation of ADT can change without affecting those method that use the
ADT
2. The complexity of the implementation are hidden
For example, an abstract stack data structure could be defined by two operations: push, thatinserts some data item into the structure, and pop, that extracts an item from it.