Introduction to Data Structures

What is data structure?

Data Structure is a part of Computer Science that helps us organize and manage data to make processes and programs work better. It’s like a special method of storing and arranging information in a computer’s memory so that we can easily find and use it whenever we need to. Think of it as a way to keep our digital information in order using logical or mathematical models, which we call data structures.

Some example of Data Structures are Trees, Graph, Array, Linked List, Queue, etc. Data structures are widely used in almost all areas of computer science. That is, data structures are used in graphics, operating systems, Artificial Intelligence and many other things.

Classification of Data Structure

we can classify Data Structure in to two categories.

1. Primitive Data Structure — Primitive data structures refer to the built-in, fundamental data types within programs, encompassing numbers and characters. These are the elemental building blocks provided by programming languages to handle basic types of information such as numerical values and individual characters. Data type like Integer, Float, Character, Short, Boolean belong to the primitive data structure.
2. Non-Primitive Data Structure — These Data Structure derived from primitive data structure and can’t be manipulate directly in machine level. This non-primitive data structure can be again divided into two sub-categories.

Those are,

a. Linear Data Structure — A Linear Data Structure is characterized by maintaining a sequential connection among its data elements. The data is organized in a linear fashion, emphasizing a structured arrangement in a straight, ordered sequence. Based on the memory allocation, linear data structure again divided into a two categories.

1. Static Data Structure — This data structure having the fixed size of memory allocation. allocate the memory at the compile time and size cannot be change after being compiled. Array is the example of static data structure.
2. Dynamic Data Structure — This data structure having the dynamic size of memory allocation. allocate the memory at the run time and size can be change during the run time. Linked List, Stack and queue are the examples of dynamic data structure.

b. Non-Linear Data Structure — Non-Linear Data Structures are characterized by the absence of a sequential arrangement among data elements. Unlike linear structures, these do not follow a straightforward order for inserting or removing data. Instead, a hierarchical relationship exists between individual data items, allowing for a more complex and interconnected organization of information. examples for the non-linear data structures are Trees and Graphs.

so guys this is the introduction to the data structure and Hope you guys enjoy that article and get knowledge. Thank you for reading my article.

In the next article we will talk about static data structure. Follow to get notified when I post more articles.