CSC148H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Root Directory, Binary Tree, Branching Factor
Document Summary
Data structures a data structure is a way of organizing data. When data are organized in a good data structure, operations that read or write the data can be much more efficient. They are linear in the sense that data is ordered (i. e. first piece of data is followed by second is followed by third . The list data structure naturally makes sense for many applications: function calls in programs (stack) a lineup in a bank (queue) etc. Other structures the linear structure doesn"t naturally make sense many other applications. Consider the directory structure in a file system. They have a natural hierarchical structure that is difficult to represent linearly. Representing this hierarchical structure using a list is not convenient. If we want to use a list, we might try storing the root directory at the first position and its subdirectories and files to its right.
