Data Structures

Question 1

What is a data structure?

Answer 1

It is a group of data elements that provide an efficient way to store and organize data in the computer.

Question 2

What are some applications of data structures?

Answer 2

programs, graphics, and operating systems.

Question 3

Why is it necessary to use data structures?

Answer 3

As the data and complexity of applications increase the following issues can occur, which can be fixed with the help of data structures.

Acronym: My Dear Paulie

Multiple requests: If thousands of users are requesting data from a web server at the same time, then there is a high probability that the webserver fails

DataSearch: If large amounts of data are stored, searching through it will mean traversing every piece of data.

Processor speed: high processor speeds are required to handle large amounts of data, as this data increases, if it is not stored efficiently, the processor may fail.

Question 4

What are the advantages of data structures?

Answer 4

Acronym: EAR

Efficiency: The efficiency of a program depends on the data structures it uses. E.g searching through an array vs a binary search tree

Abstraction: Data structures are identified by their abstract data types, which provide a level of abstraction.

Re-usability: Once implemented data structures can be used multiple times, or packed into libraries to be used by other users or clients

Question 5

how are data structures classified? (draw diagram)

Answer 5

Primitive:
-> int, char, bool
non-primitive:
linear:
static:
-> arrays
dynamic:
-> Queues, Stacks, Linked list
non-linear:
->trees and graphs

Question 6

what is a linear data structure?

Answer 6

This is a data structure whose data is organized in a linear or non-hierarchical manner.

Question 7

State and explain the types of linear data structures.

Answer 7

Static:

Array: It is a collection of similar elements of the same datatype that share the same variable name but differ in indexes

Dynamic:

LinkedList: It is a collection of nodes stored in non-contiguous memory, each node containing a pointer to its adjacent node

Stacks: It is a list of data elements where insertion and deletion can only be done at one end of the list called the top.

Queues: It is a list of data elements where insertion can only be done on one end(rear) and deletion can only be done at the other one(front)

Question 8

What is a non-linear data structure?

Answer 8

It is a data structure whose elements are arranged in a non-linear manner, where elements are linked to each other in a hierarchical manner.

Question 9

State and explain the types of non-linear data structures.

Answer 9

Trees: It is a collection of nodes arranged in a hierarchical manner where the topmost node is called the root node, and the bottom-most nodes are called the leave nodes. Every node can have multiple child nodes except a leave node and Every node can have 1 parent node except the root node.

Graphs: It is a pictorial representation of a set of elements, represented by vertices. It differs from a tree in that it can contain cycles.

Question 10

What are the possible operations that can be performed on data structures?

Answer 10

Acronym: MIDSST

Merging: It is when lists of varying sizes are combined to form a new list.

Insertion: It means adding a data element to a data structure.

Deletion: It means removing a data element from a data structure.

Searching: It means finding the location/index of a particular element in a data structure

Sorting: It means arranging the elements in a data structure in a particular order.

Traversing: It means visiting every element in a data structure to perform an operation