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Understanding Data Structures in Computing

The document provides an introduction to data structures, defining them as specialized formats for organizing, processing, retrieving, and storing data in computers. It classifies data structures into primitive and non-primitive types, with examples such as arrays, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs, and discusses their importance in computer science for efficient data handling. Additionally, it outlines operations performed on data structures, including creation, destruction, searching, and sorting.

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Sarthak Grover
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
2 views16 pages

Understanding Data Structures in Computing

The document provides an introduction to data structures, defining them as specialized formats for organizing, processing, retrieving, and storing data in computers. It classifies data structures into primitive and non-primitive types, with examples such as arrays, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs, and discusses their importance in computer science for efficient data handling. Additionally, it outlines operations performed on data structures, including creation, destruction, searching, and sorting.

Uploaded by

Sarthak Grover
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DATA STRUCTURE

Introduction

ULC301 1
Introduction to Data Structure
Computer is an electronic machine which is used for data processing and
manipulation.
When programmer collects such type of data for processing, he would require to
store all of them in computers main memory.
In order to make how computer work we need to know
Representation of data in computer.
Accessing of data.
How to solve problem step by step.
For doing all of this task we used Data Structure

ULC301 2
What is Data Structure ?

 A data structure is a specialized format for organizing, processing, retrieving and


storing data.
 In computer programming, a data structure may be selected or designed to store
data for the purpose of working on it with various algorithms.
Data Structure can be defined as the group of data elements which provides an
efficient way of storing and organizing data in the computer so that it can be used
efficiently.
Examples of Data Structures are arrays, Linked List, Stack, Queue, etc.

ULC301 3
What is Data Structure ?
Data Structures are widely used in almost every aspect of Computer Science i.e.
Operating System, Compiler Design, Artificial intelligence, Graphics and many
more.
Data Structures are the main part of many computer science algorithms as they
enable the programmers to handle the data in an efficient way.
It plays a vital role in enhancing the performance of a software or a program as the
main function of the software is to store and retrieve the user’s data as fast as
possible
Program = Algorithm + Data Structure
Algorithm: A step by step procedure to solve a particular function.

ULC301 4
Data Structure
• A data structure is a particular way of organizing data in a computer so that it can be
used effectively.
• For example, we can store a list of items having the same data-type using the array data
structure.

ULC301 5
Data Structure
The representation of particular data structure in the main memory of a computer is called as
storage structure.
The storage structure representation in auxiliary memory is called as file structure.
It is define as the way of storing and manipulating data in organized form so that it can be used
efficiently
Data Structure mainly specifies the following four things:
1)organization of data 2)accessing method
3)degree of associativity 4) processing alternative for information
Data Structure study Covers the following points
1) Amount of memory require to store
2) Amount of time require to process
3) Representation of data in memory
4) Operations performs on data
ULC301 6
Classification of Data Structure
Data Structure

Primitive Non-Primitive

Integer Linear Non-Linear

Float
Array Stack Queue Linked List Tree Graph
Character
One-
Dimension
Pointers
Two-
Dimension
Multi-
Dimension
ULC301 7
Selecting a Data Structure

ULC301 8
Types of DS
A particular kind of data item, as defined by the values it can take, the Programming
language used, or the operations that can be performed on it.
Primitive DS
• Primitive Data Structure are basic structure and directly operated upon by machine instructions.
• Primitive data structures have different representations on different computers.
• Integers, floats, character and pointers are example of primitive data structures.
• These data types are available in most programming languages as built in type.
Integer: It is a data type which allows all values without fraction part. We can used it for whole
numbers.
Float: It is a data type which is use for storing fraction numbers.
Character: It is a data type which is used for character values.
Pointer: A variable that hold memory address of another variable are called pointer.

ULC301 9
Non Primitive DS
• These are more sophisticated data structures.
• These are derived from primitive data structure.
• The non – primitive data structures emphasize structuring of a group of homogeneous or
heterogeneous data items.
• Example of non – primitive data types are Array, List, and File etc.
• A non – primitive data type is further divided into Linear and non – Linear data structure.
Array: An array is a fixed size sequenced collection of elements of the same data type.
List: An ordered set containing variable number of elements is called as List.
File: A file is a collection of logically related information. It can be viewed as a large list of
records consisting of various fields.

ULC301 10
Linear Data Structures
 A linear data structure simply means that it is a storage format of
the data in the memory in which the data are arranged in
contiguous blocks of memory.
 Example is the array of characters it represented by one character
after another.
 In the linear data structure, member elements form a sequence in
the storage.
 There are two ways to represent a linear data structure in memory.
static memory allocation
dynamic memory allocation
The possible operations on the linear data structure are:
1) Traversing 2) Insertion 3) Deletion 4) searching
5) sorting 6) merging
ULC301 11
• Example of Linear data structure are Stack and Queue
Stack
• Stack is a data structure in which insertion and deletion
operations are performed at one end only.
• The insertion operation is referred to as ‘PUSH’ and
deletion is referred as ‘POP’ operation
• Stack is also called as Last In First Out (LIFO) data
structure.
Queue
• The data structure which permits the insertion at one
and deletion at another end, known as Queue.
• End at which deletion is occurs is known as FRONT end
and another end at which insertion occurs is known as
REAR end.
• Queue is also called as First In First Out (FIFO)
ULC301 12
Linked List

ULC301 13
• Non linear DS are those data structure in which data items are not
arranged in a sequence.
• Example of Non Linear DS are Tree and Graph.
TREE
• A Tree can be define as finite data items (nodes) in which data
items are arranged in branches and sub branches
• Tree represent the hierarchical relationship between various
elements
• Tree consist of nodes connected by edge, the represented by circle
Components of Graph and edge lives connecting to circle.
Graph
• Graph is collection of nodes (information) and connecting edges
(Logical relation) between nodes.
• A tree can be viewed as restricted graph
• Graph have many types: 1) Simple graph 2) Mixed graph 3) Multi
graph 4) Directed graph 5) Un-directed graph
ULC301 14
Difference Between Linear and Non Linear Data
Structure
Linear Data Structure Non – Linear Data Structure

• Every item is related to its previous • Every item is attached with


and next item. many other items.
• Data is arranged in linear • Data is not arranged in
sequence. sequence.
• Data items can be traversed in a • Data cannot be traversed in a
single run
single run.
• E.g. Array, Stacks, Linked list,
Queue • E.g. Tree, Graph
• Implementation is easy. • Implementation is difficult.
ULC301 15
Operation on Data Structures
Design of efficient data structure must take operations to be performed on the DS into account.
The most commonly used operations on DS are broadly categorized into following types

1. Create: This operation results in reserving memory for program elements. This can be done by
declaration statement Creation of DS may take place either during compile-time or run-time.
2. Destroy: This operation destroy memory space allocated for specified data structure .
3. Selection: This operation deals with accessing a particular data within a data structure.
4. Updation: It updates or modifies the data in the data structure.
5. Searching: It finds the presence of desired data item in the list of data items, it may also find locations
of all elements that satisfy certain conditions.
6. Sorting: This is a process of arranging all data items in a DS in particular order, for example either
ascending order or in descending order.
7. Splitting: It is a process of partitioning single list to multiple list.
8. Merging: It is a process of combining data items of two different sorted list into single sorted list.
9. Traversing: It is a process of visiting each and every node of a list in systematic manner.

ULC301 16

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