What is the data structure ?, Data structure?

What is the data structure ?, Data structure?

What is the data structure?

A Data Structure is a data structure that stores and organizes data by computers. A data structure refers to a set of data elements with one or more specific relationships between each other. This is the data structure definition explained by Baidu. For the moment, if it is difficult to understand, what is the data structure? I'm afraid there is no authoritative explanation yet, and the data structure is still being expanded. After learning for a while, I don't know what the data structure is? I still understand the following explanation: data structures are widely used in computer science and technology. It is used to reflect the internal structure of a piece of data, that is, the form and structure of a piece of data. Data structures are divided into logical and physical data structures. The logical data structure reflects the logical relationship between component data, while the physical data structure reflects the storage arrangement of component data within the computer. The data structure is the form of data. Data structure is a way of organizing information. It aims to improve the efficiency of algorithms. It usually corresponds to a set of algorithms, this set of algorithms allows you to perform certain operations on data in the data structure.

Background of Data Structure Formation and Development

Generally, when using a computer to solve a specific problem, you need to take the following steps: first, you need to abstract a live mathematical model from a specific problem, then, design an algorithm for solving the mathematical model, compile the program code, debug the code, and adjust it until the final answer is obtained. The essence of finding a mathematical model is to analyze the problem, extract the operation objects, find out the relationships between these operation objects, and then describe them in the mathematical language. To compile a program, you must analyze the features of the objects to be processed and the relationships between various objects. This is the role of the data structure discipline.

Simply put, data structure is a discipline that studies the operating objects of computers and their relationships and operations in non-numerical computing programming. Therefore, there are three main aspects: the logical structure of data, the physical storage structure of data, and operations (or algorithms) on data ).

Objects of Data Structure Research

Data: refers to the symbolic representation of objective things. in computer science, it refers to all symbols that can be input into a computer and processed by computer programs.

Data Element: it is the basic unit of data. Generally, a computer program considers and processes data as a whole. Sometimes, a data element may contain several data items. Data items are the smallest units that are inseparable from each other.

Data Object: a set of data elements with the same nature. It is a subset of data.

Logical Structure of data: a set of data elements with one or more specific relationships between each other.

The logical structure includes four basic structures:

1. Set: the elements in the data structure have no other relationships except the "same set;

2. linear Structure: The elements in the data structure have a one-to-one relationship. 3. tree Structure: The elements in the data structure have one-to-many relationships. 4. graphical structure: Elements in the data structure have many-to-many relationships. Data Structure format definition: The data Structure is a binary group, Date Structure (D, S), where D is the finite set of data elements, S is the finite set of relations on D. Data storage structure: the logical structure of data is stored in the computer storage space. It is also called the physical structure of data. The data storage structure is the representation (also called image) of the data structure in the computer. It includes the internal representation of the data element and the internal representation of the relationship. The specific implementation methods include sequence, Link, index, and hash. Therefore, a data structure can be expressed as one or more storage structures. In-device representation (image method) of data elements: uses a binary bit string to represent data elements. This bit string is usually called a node ). When a data element is composed of several data items, the substring corresponding to the data item in the bit string is called the data field ). Therefore, a node is an on-premises representation (or an on-premises image) of a data element ). Intra-host representation of a link (image method): The intra-host representation of the relationship between data elements can be divided into sequential and non-sequential images. Two storage structures are commonly used: sequential and chained storage structures. A sequential image uses the relative position of an element in the memory to represent the logical relationship between data elements. An unordered image uses a pointer to indicate the location where the elements are stored to represent the logical relationship between data elements. Generally, the design of an algorithm depends on the logical structure of the data. The implementation of an algorithm depends on the physical storage structure of the data. This is an overview of the initial data structure. It is very abstract and difficult to understand. I felt a little confused after reading it three times, but it was still messy in my mind, I believe that after learning a specific algorithm, we should have a higher level of understanding.