It is a logical way of storing data and it
also define mechanism of retrieve data.
What are Data Structures?
Data may be organized in many different ways.
A Data Structure is an arrangement of data in a
computer’s memory or on a disk.
The logical or mathematical model of a particular
organization of a data is called Data Structures.
The choice of a data model depends on two
1) It must be rich enough in structure to mirror the actual
relationships of the data in the real world.
2) The structure should be simple enough that one can
effectively process the data when necessary.
Types of Data Structure
The data appearing in data structures are processed by means of
operations. The following are operations are major operations:
a) Traversing: Accessing each record exactly once so that
certain items in the record may be processed.
b) Searching: Finding the location of the record with a
given key value, or finding the locations of all records which satisfy
one or more conditions.
c) Inserting: Adding a new record to the structure.
d) Deleting: Removing a record from the structure.
Following two are special operations:
a) Sorting: Arranging the records in some logical order.
b) Merging: Combining the records in two different sorted
files into a single sorted file.
An algorithm is a well-defined list of steps for solving a particular
Algorithms manipulate the data present in data structures in various
ways, such as searching for a particular data item and sorting the data.
Flowcharts are pictorial representations of the algorithms.
Properties/ characteristics of the algorithm:
a) Finiteness: Total number of steps used in an algorithm
should be finite.
b) Definiteness: Each step of algorithm must be clear and
c) Effectiveness: Every step must be basic and essential.
d) Input/output: The algorithm must accept zero or more
input and must produce at least on output.