Data structures are generally based on the ability of a computer to fetch and store data at any place in its memory, specified by a pointer—a bit string, representing a memory address, that can be itself stored in memory and manipulated by the program. Thus, the array and record data structures are based on computing the addresses of data items with arithmetic operations; while the linked data structures are based on storing addresses of data items within the structure itself. Many data structures use both principles, sometimes combined in non-trivial ways (as in XOR linking).

Different kinds of are suited to different kinds of applications, and some are highly specialized to specific tasks. For example, relational databases most commonly use B-tree indexes for data retrieval, while compiler implementations usually use hash tables to look up identifiers.

Important Announcement – EasyShiksha has now started Online Internship Program “Ab India Sikhega Ghar Se”

The implementation of a data structure usually requires writing a set of procedures that create and manipulate instances of that structure. The efficiency of a data structure cannot be analyzed separately from those operations. This observation motivates the theoretical concept of an abstract data type, a data structure that is defined indirectly by the operations that may be performed on it, and the mathematical properties of those operations (including their space and time cost).

ALSO READ: Computer Networking Online Course

Get Course: Data Structure Online Course