CPSC 319 Lecture 1: 01 Definitions

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Computer Science
• Course: CPSC 319
• Professor: Leonard Manzara

Document Summary

Data structure: the organization of elementary data types into a larger, structured aggregate. Used to store data for an application. May be directly supported by a programming language: e. g. Usually created by a programmer: reusable code for a data structure may be kept in a library. Algorithm: a well-defined set of instructions for solving a problem. Informally (e. g. in plain english: formally, using specially designed mathematical notations. Is independent of its implementation (i. e. code written in a particular language) Abstract data type (adt): a data structure accompanied by a set of access functions. The implementation details are concealed from client code: uses information hiding. The functions: create objects of the adt, access the contents of the data structure. Classes in an object-orientated language are adts where the concealment is enforced by language syntax. Stack adt: access functions: new, push, pop. Most data structures are dynamic i. e. they can grow larger and smaller over time.