03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

INTRODUCTION
It is important for every Computer Science student to understand the concept of Information and how it is
organizedorhowitcanbeutilized.
WhatisInformation?

Ifwearrangesomedatainanappropriatesequence,thenitformsaStructureandgivesusameaning.This
meaningiscalledInformation.ThebasicunitofInformationinComputerScienceisabit,BinaryDigit.
So,wefoundtwothingsinInformation:OneisDataandtheotherisStructure.

WhatisDataStructure?

1. Adatastructureisasystematicwayoforganizingandaccessingdata.
2. Adatastructuretriestostructuredata!
Usuallymorethanonepieceofdata
Shoulddefinelegaloperationsonthedata
Thedatamightbegroupedtogether(e.g.inanlinkedlist)
3. Whenwedefineadatastructureweareinfactcreatinganewdatatypeofourown.
i.e.usingpredefinedtypesorpreviouslyuserdefinedtypes.
Suchnewtypesarethenusedtoreferencevariablestypewithinaprogram
Start

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

WhyDataStructures?

1. Datastructuresstudyhowdataarestoredinacomputersothatoperationscanbeimplementedefficiently
2. Datastructuresareespeciallyimportantwhenyouhavealargeamountofinformation
3. Conceptualandconcretewaystoorganizedataforefficientstorageandmanipulation.

MethodsofInterpretingbitSetting

1. BinaryNumberSystem
NonNegative
Negative
OnesComplementNotation
TwosComplementNotation
2. BinaryCodedDecimal
3. RealNumber
4. CharacterString

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

NonNegativeBinarySystem
InthisSystemeachbitpositionrepresentsapowerof2.Therightmostbitpositionrepresent20whichequals1.
Thenextpositiontotheleftrepresents21=2andsoon.AnIntegerisrepresentedasasumofpowersof2.A
stringofall0srepresentsthenumber0.Ifa1appearsinaparticularbitposition,thepowerof2representedby
thatbitpositionisincludedintheSum.Butifa0appears,thepowerof2isnotincludedintheSum.Forexample
10011,thesumis
OnesComplementNotation

NegativebinarynumberisrepresentedbyonesComplementNotation.Inthisnotationwerepresentanegative
number by changing each bit in its absolute value to the opposite bit setting. For example, since 001001100
represent38,11011001isusedtorepresent38.Theleftmostnumberisreservedforthesignofthenumber.A
bit String Starting with a 0 represents a positive number, where a bit string starting with a 1 represents a
negativenumber.

TwosComplementNotation
In Twos Complement Notation is also used to represent a negative number. In this notation 1 is added to the
Ones Complement Notation of a negative number. For example, since 11011001 represents 38 in Ones
ComplementNotation11011010usedrepresent38inTwosComplementNotation.
Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

BinaryCodedDecimal

InthisSystemastringofbitsmaybeusedtorepresentintegersintheDecimalNumberSystem.Fourbitscanbe
usedtorepresentaDecimaldigitbetween0and9inthebinarynotation.Astringofbitsofarbitrarylengthmaybe
dividedintoconsecutivesetsoffourbits.Witheachsetrepresentingadecimaldigit.Thestringthenrepresentsthe
numberthatisformedbythosedecimaldigitsinconventionaldecimalnotation.Forexample,inthissystemthebit
string00110101isseparatedintotwostringsoffourbitseach:0011and0101.Thefirstoftheserepresentsthe
decimaldigit3andthesecondrepresentsthedecimal5,sothattheentirestringrepresentstheinteger35.
Inthebinarycodeddecimalsystemweuse4bits,sothisfourbitsrepresentsixteenpossiblestates.Butonly10of
thosesixteenpossibilitiesareused.Thatmeans,whosebinaryvaluesare10orlarger,areinvalidinBinaryCoded
DecimalSystem.

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

RealNumber

TheFloatingPointNotationusetorepresentRealNumbers.ThekeyconceptoffloatingpointnotationisMantissa,
BaseandExponent.ThebaseisusuallyfixedandtheMantissaandtheExponentvarytorepresentdifferentReal
Number.ForExample,ifthebaseisfixedat10,thenumber235.47couldberepresentedas
.The
Mantissais23547andtheexponentis2.Otherpossiblerepresentationsare
and
.
In the floatingpoint notation a real number is represented by a 32bit string. Including in 32bit, 24bit use for
representation of Mantissa and remaining 8bit use for representation of Exponent .Both the mantissa and the
exponentaretwoscomplementbinaryIntegers.Forexample,the24bittwoscomplementbinaryrepresentationof
23547is111111111010010000000101,andthe8bittwoscomplementbinaryrepresentationof2is11111110.
Sotherepresentationof235.47is11111111101001000000010111111110.Itcanbeusedtorepresentextremely
largeorextremelysmallabsolutevalues.

CharacterStrings

Incomputerscience,informationisnotalwaysinterpretednumerically.Itemsuchasnames,addressandjobtitle
must also be represented in some fashion with in computer. To enable the representation of such nonnumeric
objects, still another method of interpreting bit strings is necessary. Such information is usually represented in
characterstringform.Forexample,insomecomputers,theeightbits11000000isusedtorepresentthecharacter
"A" and 11000001 for character "B" and another for each character that has a representation in a particular
machine.So,thecharacterstring"AB"wouldberepresentedbythebitstring1100000011000001.
Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

Theassignmentofbitstringtocharactermaybeentirelyarbitrary,butitmustbeadheredtoconsistently.Itmay
bethatsomeconvenientruleisusedinassigningbitstringtocharacter.Thenumberofbitsvariescomputerwise
usedtorepresentacharacter.
Some computers are use 7bit (therefore allow up to 128 possible characters), some computers are use 8bits
(upto256character),andsomeuse10bits(upto1024possiblecharacters).Thenumberofbitsnecessaryto
representacharacterinaparticularcomputeriscalledthebytesizeandagroupofbitsthatnumberiscalleda
byte.

Array

Incomputerprogramming,agroupofhomogeneouselementsofaspecificdatatypeisknownasanarray,one
of the simplest data structures. Arrays hold a series of data elements, usually of the same size and data type.
Individualelementsareaccessedbytheirpositioninthearray.Thepositionisgivenbyanindex,whichisalso
calledasubscript.Theindexusuallyusesaconsecutiverangeofintegers,(asopposedtoanassociativearray)
buttheindexcanhaveanyordinalsetofvalues.

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

Somearraysaremultidimensional,meaningtheyareindexedbyafixednumberofintegers,forexamplebya
tuple of four integers. Generally, one and twodimensional arrays are the most common. Most programming
languageshaveabuiltinarraydatatype.

LinkList

Incomputerscience,alinkedlistisoneofthefundamentaldatastructuresusedincomputerprogramming.It
consists of a sequence of nodes, each containing arbitrary data fields and one or two references ("links")
pointingtothenextand/orpreviousnodes.Alinkedlistisaselfreferentialdatatypebecauseitcontainsalink
toanotherdataofthesametype.Linkedlistspermitinsertionandremovalofnodesatanypointinthelistin
constanttime,butdonotallowrandomaccess.
Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

TypesofLinkList
1. LinearlylinkedList
Singlylinkedlist
Doublylinkedlist
2. Circularlylinkedlist
Singlycircularlylinkedlist
Doublycircularlylinkedlist
3. Sentinelnodes

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Stack

Printthispage

AstackisalinearStructureinwhichitemmaybeaddedorremovedonlyatoneend.Therearecertainfrequent
situationsincomputersciencewhenonewantstorestrictinsertionsanddeletionssothattheycantakeplaceonly
atthebeginningortheendoftheendofthelist,notinthemiddle.TwooftheDataStructuresthatareusefulin
such situations are Stacksand queues. A stack is a list of elements in which an elements may be inserted or
deletedonlyatoneend,calledtheTop.Thismeans,inparticular,theelementsareremovedfromastackinthe
reverseorderofthatwhichtheyareinsertedintothestack.Thestackalsocalled"lastinfirstout(LIFO)"list.

Specialterminologyisusedfortwobasicoperationassociatedwithstack
:
1. "Push"isthetermusedtoinsertanelementintoastack.
2. "Pop"isthetermusedtodeleteanelementfromastack.

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure
Queue

Printthispage

A queue is a linear list of elements in which deletions can take place only at one end, called the " front " and
insertioncantakeplaceonlyattheotherend,called"rear".Theterm"front"and"rear"areusedindescribing
alinearlistonlywhenitisimplementedasaqueue.
Queuesarealsocalled"firstinfirstout"(FIFO)list.Sincethefirstelementinaqueuewillbethefirstelementout
ofthequeue.Inotherwords,theorderinwhichelementsenterinaqueueistheorderinwhichtheyleave.The
reallifeexample:thepeoplewaitinginalineatRailwayticketCounterformaqueue,wherethefirstpersonina
lineisthefirstpersontobewaitedon.Animportantexampleofaqueueincomputerscienceoccursintimesharing
system,inwhichprogramswiththesamepriorityformaqueuewhilewaitingtobeexecuted.

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure
Tree

Printthispage

Datafrequentlycontainahierarchicalrelationshipbetweenvariouselements.ThisnonlinearDatastructurewhich
reflectsthisrelationshipiscalledarootedtreegraphor,tree.
This structure is mainly used to represent data containing a hierarchical relationship between elements, e.g.
record,familytreeandtableofcontents.

Atreeconsistofadistinguishednoder,calledtherootandzeroormore(sub)treet1,t2,...tn,eachofwhose
rootsareconnectedbyadirectededgetor.
Inthetreeoffigure,therootisA,Nodet2hasrasaparentandt2.1,t2.2andt2.3aschildren.Eachnodemay
havearbitrarynumberofchildren,possiblyzero.Nodeswithnochildrenareknownasleaves.

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Graph

Printthispage

Agraphconsistsofasetofnodes(orVertices)andasetofarc(oredge).Eacharcinagraphisspecifiedbya
pair of nodes. A node n is incidentto an arc x if n is one of the two nodes in the ordered pair of nodes that
constitutex.Thedegreeofanodeisthenumberofarcsincidenttoit.Theindegreeofanodenisthenumber
ofarcsthathavenasthehead,andtheoutdegreeofnisthenumberofarcsthathavenasthetail.
Thegraphisthenonlineardatastructure.Thegraphshowninthefigurerepresents7verticesand12edges.
TheVerticesare{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}andthearcsare{(1,2),(1,3),(1,4),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,6),(4,5),(4,6),
(4,7),(5,7),(6,7)}.Node(4)infigurehasindegree3,outdegree3anddegree6.

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1

03/01/2016

NPTELIITGuwahati

IntroductiontoDataStructure

Printthispage

AbstractDataType

1. AbstractDataTypes(ADT's)areamodelusedtounderstandthedesignofadatastructure
2. 'Abstract'impliesthatwegiveanimplementationindependentviewofthedatastructure
3. ADTsspecifythetypeofdatastoredandtheoperationsthatsupportthedata
4. ViewingadatastructureasanADTallowsaprogrammertofocusonanidealizedmodelofthedataandits
operations

Prev

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcoursecontents/IIT%20Guwahati/data_str_algo/frameset.htm

First|Next|Last

1/1