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Data structures are the fundamental building blocks of any program. They are the ways of organizing and storing data in memory so that they can be accessed and manipulated efficiently and effectively. Data structures can affect the performance, readability, and maintainability of the code, as well as the complexity and difficulty of the problem-solving process. Therefore, any programmer needs to master the most common and important data structures and know how to use them appropriately for different scenarios. In this article, we will introduce 10 must-know data structures for programmers, and explain their properties, operations, and use cases.
Array is the simplest and most basic data structure. It is a collection of elements of the same type, stored in a contiguous block of memory, and accessed by their index. Array has the following properties and operations:
Array has a fixed size, which means it cannot be resized or expanded dynamically.
Array has a constant access time, which means it can access any element in O(1) time, by using its index.
An array has a linear search time, which means it can search for an element in O(n) time, by iterating over all the elements.
A string is a special type of array, that stores a sequence of characters, such as letters, digits, symbols, or spaces. A string has the following properties and operations:
It has a variable size, which means it can be resized or expanded dynamically, depending on the implementation and the language.
A string has a constant access time, which means it can access any character in O(1) time, by using its index.
A stack is a linear data structure, that stores a collection of elements and follows the last-in-first-out (LIFO) principle. A stack has the following properties and operations:
A stack has a variable size, which means it can be resized or expanded dynamically, depending on the implementation and the language.
A stack has a constant access time, which means it can access the top element in O(1) time, by using a pointer or a reference.
A queue is a linear data structure, that stores a collection of elements and follows the first-in-first-out (FIFO) principle. A queue has the following properties and operations:
A queue has a variable size, which means it can be resized or expanded dynamically, depending on the implementation and the language.
A queue has a constant access time, which means it can access the front and rear elements in O(1) time, by using pointers or references.
A linked list is a linear data structure, that stores a collection of elements and links them together by pointers or references. A linked list has the following properties and operations:
A tree is a hierarchical data structure, that stores a collection of elements and organizes them in a parent-child relationship. A tree has the following properties and operations:
A tree has a variable size, which means it can be resized or expanded dynamically, depending on the implementation and the language.
A tree has a logarithmic access time, which means it can access any element in O(log n) time, by traversing the tree from the root or the leaf.
A heap is a special type of tree, that stores a collection of elements and maintains a heap property. A heap has the following properties and operations:
A heap has a variable size, which means it can be resized or expanded dynamically, depending on the implementation and the language.
A heap has a constant access time, which means it can access the root element in O(1) time, by using a pointer or a reference.
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