What is Data Structure?

There can be many definitions for Data Structure, but the easiest one to understand is the following:

“A data structure is a way of organizing data in some fashion so that later on, it can be accessed, queried, or even updated easily and quickly”

It is a collection of values. The values can have relationships among them and they can have functions applied to them. Each one is different in what it can do and what it is best used for. Each is good and is specialized for its own thing.

They are essential components in creating fast and powerful algorithms. They help to manage and organize data so that it will make our code cleaner and easier to understand. Data structures can make the difference between an Okay product and an outstanding one.

Before getting to Data structures, we have to talk about the abstraction of Data structures. In other words, let’s discuss the concept of Abstract Data Types.

What is Abstract Data Type (ADT)?

An abstract data type (ADT) is simply an abstraction of a data structure. It provides only the interface to which a data structure must adhere to. The interface doesn’t provide any specific details about how something should be implemented or in what programming language.

They are called “abstract” because they are just theoretical concepts and every programming language has different ways of implementing it.

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