Data Structure
A specialized format for organizing, storing, and accessing data to enable efficient operations.
Definition
A data structure is a specialized format for organizing, storing, and managing data in memory to enable efficient access and modification operations. The choice of data structure greatly affects algorithm performance. Common data structures include arrays (ordered, indexed), linked lists (dynamic chains), stacks (LIFO), queues (FIFO), hash tables (key-value, O(1) access), trees (hierarchical), and graphs (nodes and edges). Different structures optimize for different operations — insertion, deletion, search, or traversal.
Example
“A hash table data structure enables a dictionary application to look up any word's definition in O(1) time regardless of dictionary size.”
Synonyms
- data container
- data organization format
- collection type
Images
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Related Terms
- algorithm
- array
- linked-list
- hash-table