UMBC CS 201, Fall 06
UMBC CMSC 201
Fall '06

CSEE | 201 | 201 F'06 | lectures | news | help

Data Structures

So far, we have learned about the basic data types of C: integers, floating-points and characters and used some of the specific data types of each kind, such as int, float, double, and char.

Now we will add a complex data type whose elements can be defined to be of an arbitrary type. This is our first real example of what is generally called a data structure .

A data structure is a way of storing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently. Often a carefully chosen data structure will allow a more efficient algorithm to be used. A well-designed data structure allows critical operations to be performed on it using as few resources (both execution time and memory space) as possible.

Niklaus Wirth, a famous Computer Scientist who invented the Pascal programming language, coined the slogan:

To reflect the fact that the two most important aspects of programming are designing algorithms and selecting and/or designing the data structures on which they operate.


CSEE | 201 | 201 F'06 | lectures | news | help

Tuesday, 22-Aug-2006 07:13:55 EDT