Data Structures and Algorithms

Lecture 6:
ADTs and Data Structures

Tauseef Iftikhar

Department of Computer Science

Government College University, Lahore.
Today’s Agenda

Recap

ADTs
Recap

I Pointers and Arrays

I Pointers and Objects
I Dynamic Memory
I new
I delete
I dangling pointer
I memory leak
Abstract Data Types

I Predefined data types and associated operations. For

Example, type int supports the basic arithmetic and relational
operators, as well as a number of numerical functions.
I We need more sophisticated data types, that are collection of
related data items instead of individual data item.
More sophisticated data types (items) (user defined) created using
the predefined data types are called Abstract data type (ADTs).
We specify ADTs by describing:
I types of data items in ADT
I structure: organization of data items
I operations: describe the behavior of ADT
Each operation must have some precondition and some
postcondition.
Data Structures

After these operations are precisely specified, the implementation

of the program may start. The implementation decides which data
structure should be used to make execution most efficient in terms
of time and space.
Data structure is the area which discuss how the data is to be
stored in memory.
Data structure discuss the physical level details whereas an ADT is
mathematical model of a data structure.
ADT Set

A set is collection of distinct objects.

I data items: could be of any type
I structure: No relation/ no ordering
I operations: get number of objects, is empty, insert object,
find, remove and make empty.
ADT List

A sequence of zero or more elements a1 , a2 , . . . , an . These

elements are usually not sorted.
I data items
I structure: explicitly linearly ordered: ai precedes ai+1 and ai
follows ai−1
I operations: insert element, delete element, print list, make
empty, find, find kth etc.
Choose data structure to implement
I Array
I Linked List
ADT Sorted List

A sequence of zero or more elements such that a1 ≤ a2 , . . . ≤ an

(ascending) or a1 ≥ a2 , . . . ≥ an (descending).
I data items
I structure: implicit linear ordering: ai precedes ai+1 and ai
follows ai−1
I operations: insert element, delete element, print list, make
empty, find next larger, find previous smaller, iterate through
objects between [aj , ak ] etc.
Choose data structure to implement
I Array
I Linked List
ADT Stack

A sequence of zero or more elements such that a1 , a2 , . . . , an .

I data items
I structure: explicit linear ordering: LIFO structure.
I operations: push object, pop object, make empty and show
top.
Choose data structure to implement
I Array
I Linked List
ADT Queue

A sequence of zero or more elements such that a1 , a2 , . . . , an .

I data items
I structure: explicit linear ordering: FIFO structure.
I operations: Enque object, Dequeue object, make empty,
show rear and show front .
Choose data structure to implement
I Array
I Linked List
ADT Tree

The Abstract Tree is defined for objects on which a hierarchical

ordering is placed. Convention has it that the objects within a tree
are referred to as nodes.
I data items
I structure: explicit hierarchical ordering:
I operations: Access the root node, Given a reference to a
node, access the parent if it is not the root node, determine
the depth of the node, Iterate through the ancestors back to
the root node, Determine the number of children, Iterate
through the children, Determine the number of descendants,
and Iterate through all the descendants in a predictable
manner (breadth-first traversal or depth-first traversal)
Choose data structure to implement
I Linked List
ADT Polynomial
An expression of more than two algebraic terms, especially the sum
of several terms that contain different powers of the same
variable(s).
4x 5 + 5x 2 − 8
The degree/order of polynomial is 5.
A single variable polynomial can be generalized as:
n
X
f (x) = ai x i
i=0

which can be expanded as

an x n + an−1 x n−1 + . . . a2 x 2 + a1 x + a0

coefficients
exponents
ADT Polynomial

A polynomial object is a homogeneous ordered list of pairs

¡exponent,coefficient¿.
I data items
I structure: homogeneous ordered list of pairs
I operations: Add & Subtract, Multiply, Differentiate,
Integrate etc.
How to implement it?
I Array
I Linked List