What is a data structure?

Answer Posted / indrajeet kumar ray

In order to represent and store data in main memory and/or
secondary memory, we need an appropriate model. The
different models used to organize data in the main memory
are collectively referred to as data structures, whereas
the different models used to organize data in the secondary
memory are collectively referred to as file structures.
The computer system is used essentially as Data Management
System where 'Data' are very important thing for it. The
data can be referred to in many ways viz. data, data items,
data structures etc. The data being an active participant
in the organization's operations and planning, data are
aggregated and summrized in various meaningful ways to form
information. The data must be represented, stored,
organized, processed and managed so as to support the user
environment. All these factors very much depend upon the
way data are aggregated. The Data structures are an
effective nd reliable way to achieve this.
A Data Structure is a named group of data of different data
types which can be processed as a single unit. A data
structure has well-defined operations, behaviour and
properties.

Types of Data Structures:-
Data Structures are very important in a computer system, as
these not only allow the user to combine various data types
in a group but also allow processing of the group as a
single unit thereby making things much simpler and easier.
The data structures can be classified into following two
types: -
1. Simple Data Structures: - These data structures are
normally built from primitive data types like integers,
reals, characters, boolean. Following data structures can
be termed as simple data structures:
i. Array
ii. Structure
2. Compound Data Structures: Simple data structures can be
combined in various ways to form more complex structures
called compound data structures. Compound data structures
are classified into following two types: -
i. Linear Data Structures:- a data structure whose elements
form a sequence, and every element in the structure has a
unique predecessor and a unique successor. Linear data
structures are single level data structures. Following are
the examples of linear data structures:
a. Stack
b. Queue
c. Linked List

ii. Non Linear Data Structures:- a data structure whose
elements do not form a sequence, there is no any unique
predecessor and unique successor. Non linear data
structures are multilevel data structures. Following are
the examples of non-linear data structures:
a. Tree
b. Graph
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