Data Structure and Types

Data Structure and Types

Data structure is a specialized format for organizing or arranging and storing data. General data structure type include the array the record, the files ,the tree, and so on. Any data structure is designed to organised data to suit a specific purpose so that it can accessed and worked with in appropropriate ways.

• Data structure is a way of orginizing data that considered not only the items stored but also their relationships to each other.
• Advantage knowledge about the relationship between data items allows designing of efficient algorithms for the handling of data.
• Data structure refers to methodsof orginizing units of data within larger set of data.
• Achieiving and maintaining specific data structure helps improved data access and value.

What is Data Structures ?

Data structure is abstract description of the way an arranging the data to allow certain operations. It makes the data quickly available to the processors for required operations.

It is a software airfact which allows data to be stored, organised and accessed.

Data structure is structure program used to stored orderd data, so that it performed various operations easily.

Types of Data Structure

Data structures are divided into two Types:

• • Linear data structure
  • Non-linear data structure

1. Linear data structure

Linear data structure is defined as the data structure in where data items is organised in a list or in straight sequentially  where data elements attached one after another

Linear data structure traverses the data elements sequentially and only one data element can directly be reached.All the data items in linear data structures can be traversed in single run.

For example: Array, Linked list, Stack, Queue

2. Non Linear data structure

Non linear data structure is defined as the data structure in which data may be arranged in hierrarchical manner.

It is opposite to linear data structure. In non linear data structure, the data values are not arranged in order and the data item is connected to several other data items. It uses memory efficiently.In this data structure free contiguous memory is not required for allocating data items.

For example: Tree and Graph

Read more, What is an algorithm?