Chapter 3.8
Data Structure

Knowledge Base > Algorithm



Overview

Most algorithms use different methods of organizing the data involved in the computation. Such data collection created are called data structure. For the same data, different data structure require more or less space than others, and for the same computation, different data structure lead to more or less efficient algorithms than others.[2] Thus, the choice of algorithm and of a data structure usually go hand in hand.

The fundamental building blocks of most data structures are array (a collection of same type data that are stored continuously in memory can be accessed by index[2]), reference (an object containing information which refers to data stored in memory, as opposed to containing the data itself), record and union (a data structure used to hold several different types). Other data structures, built on those basic building blocks, are implemented to different kinds of applications, such as Linked List, Stack, Queue, or Tree. Some data structure are highly specialized to certain tasks.