What is a data structure?
Data structure is a way of representation of relationship between logical related data elements.
Data may be organized in many different ways .
The logical or mathematical model of particular organization of data is called data structure.
Mathematically
In Mathematically we can define data structures
DS= organized data + Allowed operator.
In data structure, decision on the operation such as storage, retrieval and access must be carried out between the logically related data elements only.
Data structure always describe about data representation in memory.
Applications of data structure
Compiler design
Operating system design like memory management(linked list + hash map)
Database management system( B-tree)
File systems(trees)
Statistic analysis package (data mining alogorithms)
Network data model (graph)
Electronic circuit and simulation ( graphs )
Numerical analysis
Artificial intelligence
Type of data structure
Data structure is normally divide into two type
- Primitive data structure.
- Non primitive data structure
Primitive data structure
These are basic data structure and are directly operated upon by the machine instruction.
Example – integer float
Non primitive data structure
These are more sophisticated data structure these are divided from Primitive data structure.
the Non primitive data structure emphases unstructured of a group of heterogeneous and non homogenous data .