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Data Structure M1

Data structures allow for efficient organization of data to solve common problems like slow data search times, limited processor speeds, and inability to handle multiple requests. They organize data in a way that not all items need to be searched, allowing for fast retrieval of required data. Key data structure operations include search, sort, insert, update, and delete. Algorithms are used to implement these operations in a way that is correct, fast, and uses little memory.

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75 views3 pages

Data Structure M1

Data structures allow for efficient organization of data to solve common problems like slow data search times, limited processor speeds, and inability to handle multiple requests. They organize data in a way that not all items need to be searched, allowing for fast retrieval of required data. Key data structure operations include search, sort, insert, update, and delete. Algorithms are used to implement these operations in a way that is correct, fast, and uses little memory.

Uploaded by

billy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Data Structures are the programmatic way of storing data so that data can be used efficiently.

Almost every enterprise application uses various types of data structures in one or the other
way. This tutorial will give you a great understanding on Data Structures needed to understand
the complexity of enterprise level applications and need of algorithms, and data structures.

Why to Learn Data Structure and Algorithms?


As applications are getting complex and data rich, there are three common problems that
applications face now-a-days.

• Data Search − Consider an inventory of 1 million(106) items of a store. If the


application is to search an item, it has to search an item in 1 million(10 6) items every
time slowing down the search. As data grows, search will become slower.

• Processor speed − Processor speed although being very high, falls limited if the data
grows to billion records.

• Multiple requests − As thousands of users can search data simultaneously on a web


server, even the fast server fails while searching the data.

To solve the above-mentioned problems, data structures come to rescue. Data can be organized
in a data structure in such a way that all items may not be required to be searched, and the
required data can be searched almost instantly.

Applications of Data Structure and Algorithms


Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure, which defines a set of instructions to be executed in a
certain order to get the desired output. Algorithms are generally created independent of
underlying languages, i.e. an algorithm can be implemented in more than one programming
language.

From the data structure point of view, following are some important categories of algorithms −

• Search − Algorithm to search an item in a data structure.

• Sort − Algorithm to sort items in a certain order.

• Insert − Algorithm to insert item in a data structure.

• Update − Algorithm to update an existing item in a data structure.

• Delete − Algorithm to delete an existing item from a data structure.

The following computer problems can be solved using Data Structures −

• Fibonacci number series


• Knapsack problem
• Tower of Hanoi
• All pair shortest path by Floyd-Warshall
• Shortest path by Dijkstra
• Project scheduling

Data Structure is a systematic way to organize data in order to use it efficiently. Following terms
are the foundation terms of a data structure.
• Interface − Each data structure has an interface. Interface represents the set of
operations that a data structure supports. An interface only provides the list of
supported operations, type of parameters they can accept and return type of these
operations.

• Implementation − Implementation provides the internal representation of a data


structure. Implementation also provides the definition of the algorithms used in the
operations of the data structure.

Characteristics of a Data Structure


• Correctness − Data structure implementation should implement its interface
correctly.

• Time Complexity − Running time or the execution time of operations of data


structure must be as small as possible.

• Space Complexity − Memory usage of a data structure operation should be as little


as possible.

Need for Data Structure


As applications are getting complex and data rich, there are three common problems that
applications face now-a-days.

• Data Search − Consider an inventory of 1 million(106) items of a store. If the


application is to search an item, it has to search an item in 1 million(10 6) items every
time slowing down the search. As data grows, search will become slower.

• Processor speed − Processor speed although being very high, falls limited if the data
grows to billion records.

• Multiple requests − As thousands of users can search data simultaneously on a web


server, even the fast server fails while searching the data.

To solve the above-mentioned problems, data structures come to rescue. Data can be organized
in a data structure in such a way that all items may not be required to be searched, and the
required data can be searched almost instantly.

Execution Time Cases


There are three cases which are usually used to compare various data structure's execution time
in a relative manner.

• Worst Case − This is the scenario where a particular data structure operation takes

maximum time it can take. If an operation's worst case time is ƒ then this

operation will not take more than ƒ time where ƒ represents function of n.
• Average Case − This is the scenario depicting the average execution time of an

operation of a data structure. If an operation takes ƒ time in execution, then m

operations will take mƒ time.

• Best Case − This is the scenario depicting the least possible execution time of an

operation of a data structure. If an operation takes ƒ time in execution, then the


actual operation may take time as the random number which would be maximum as

ƒ .

Basic Terminology
• Data − Data are values or set of values.

• Data Item − Data item refers to single unit of values.

• Group Items − Data items that are divided into sub items are called as Group Items.

• Elementary Items − Data items that cannot be divided are called as Elementary
Items.

• Attribute and Entity − An entity is that which contains certain attributes or


properties, which may be assigned values.

• Entity Set − Entities of similar attributes form an entity set.

• Field − Field is a single elementary unit of information representing an attribute of


an entity.

• Record − Record is a collection of field values of a given entity.

• File − File is a collection of records of the entities in a given entity se

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