What is the data structure?

Data structure is a concept of computer science concerning a specific method of collecting and organizing information. All data structures use information about where the piece of data is placed in the computer memory to get to these data and connect it to other data. Data structures create one of the many different types of relationships between information. Different types of data structure are more efficient for different purposes and the difficulty of encoding differs very much between data structure types. In the field, the elements include sequential memory addresses, allowing the memory address of any item in the field to be determined very quickly using simple mathematical calculations, which is a key advantage. The field can be designed as existing in any number of dimensions. The one -dimensional MIGHT field can be conceptualized as a list, a two -dimensional field as a table and a three -dimensional field as a cube of individual cells. There may also be more than three dimensions.

lists are another simple but very important type of data structure. The list of connected each node consists of a variable containing actual data and information identifying another element in the list. The connected list can therefore be passed as long as the first node address is known. This type of data structure is universal because it is suitable for dynamic growth, as new nodes can be easily assigned at any time. Adding a variable containing the location of the previous node in the list allows you to go through this type of data structure in both directions.

trees order knots hierarchically, starting with a root node and descend through several layers of nodes, all necessary data have been accommodated in the structure. Usually elements inside the tree are sorted in some way. Trees can implement sorting and can potentially provide much faster access to stored data because each branch eliminates a variety of information from the assessment that By had to be sorted in a linked list.

hash tables are used to determine the memory address in which a given piece of data is to be stored by means of an equation to convert this data into a memory address. These can be a very effective structure for storing and obtaining data from the field.

All data structures are designed to reduce the number of instructions that the computer must run to find specific information. Different types of data are suitable for different types of data structure, but most modern programming languages ​​offer support for a wide range of data structure or provide tools that enable programmers to code their own data structures.