Static and Dynamic Data types

Question 1

What are Arrays

Answer 1

Static data structures that store data of the same type under a single identifier. Data is stored in elements, each with its own index, arranged as a contiguous block in memory of a fixed length

Question 2

How does indexing work in arrays?

Answer 2

The index acts as an offset to the data from the start off the structure in memory. For this reason the dimensions and data type of the array must be known.

Question 3

What is a multidimensional array?

Answer 3

An n-dimensional array is a set of elements with the same data type that are indexed by a tuple of n integers, where a tuple is an ordered list of elements.

Question 4

What are the uses of arrays?

Answer 4

• Can store multiple homogenous values (1D)
• Can represent vectors (1D)
• Can store tabular data in a matrix (2D)
• Multidimensional arrays are common in machine learning applications where large data sets containing multiple related data are used to train models

Question 5

What are the advantages of static data structures?

Answer 5

• Do not require pointers so take up less space for a given number of elements
• Can randomly access any element in constant time because data is stored in contiguous memory locations
• Faster than dynamic data structures

Question 6

What are the disadvantages of static data structures?

Answer 6

• Cannot increase in size to allow more data to be stored than size declared at compilation allows
• Cannot decrease in size to free up memory
• Inefficient if more space is allocated than required
• Can lead to errors if not enough space is allocated

Question 7

What are static data structures

Answer 7

-Data structures with a fixed size determined at declaration/compilation
-are arranged in contiguous locations in memory
-no pointers

Question 8

What are dynamic data structures

Answer 8

-Data structures that can change size at run time as new items are added/removed during a program’s execution, by allocating from the ‘heap’
-Require pointers

Question 9

Advantages of Dynamic Data structures

Answer 9

More flexible, with no wasted space as they only take up as much space as is required for their data

Question 10

Disadvantages of Dynamic Data structures

Answer 10

Do not store items in consecutive memory locations and require memory to store pointers to next items

Consumes more space to store N items than a static structure.