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Data & Storage Structures: Introductions &

This document provides an overview and introduction to the topics of data structures and storage structures that will be covered in the course. It outlines the fundamental building blocks that will be discussed, including linear and non-linear data structures. It also summarizes the various storage structures like arrays, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs that will be analyzed. The document emphasizes that understanding data structures is essential for good programming and problem solving. It motivates the need for efficient storage structures to minimize disk accesses and optimize input/output operations.

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shivani
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
14 views

Data & Storage Structures: Introductions &

This document provides an overview and introduction to the topics of data structures and storage structures that will be covered in the course. It outlines the fundamental building blocks that will be discussed, including linear and non-linear data structures. It also summarizes the various storage structures like arrays, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs that will be analyzed. The document emphasizes that understanding data structures is essential for good programming and problem solving. It motivates the need for efficient storage structures to minimize disk accesses and optimize input/output operations.

Uploaded by

shivani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Data & Storage Structures: Introductions &

Overview
Introduction to Data Structures
Introduction to Storage structures
Coverage Overview
Fundamental Building Blocks
Linear Data Structures
Non-Linear Information Structures
Applications

Some Skills you should Acquire Through The course

Motivation for Data Structures


In a beginning programming course, variables are introduced
that store a single datum.

In all but trivial programs, however, we need to store multiple


related data items for convenience.

For example, data items like students records many need to be


stored under a single name for ease of processing.

Such convenient structuring of data is called data organization a


container for the data is called data structure.

A data structure is a means of organizing data in primary


memory in a form is convenient to process by a program.

Motivation for Data Structures (contd.)


A data structure could be a programming construct provided in
a language or it can be defined by the programmer.

Example of data structure include:


Arrays, Linked lists, Stacks, Queues, Trees, Graphs

Data structures are applied in sorting, searching, hash tables,


graph algorithms, pattern matching, data compressing etc.

A course in data structure is a core course in most


undergraduate Computer Science degree program.

The contents of this course has not changed much in the last
two decades except for inclusion of some new algorithms.

Need for Knowledge of Data Structures


Good programming and problem solving requires knowledge of
data structures.

Without a sufficient understanding of data structures, the level


at which a programmer can work will be severely limited.

An important distinguishing characteristics of data structures is


the manner in which they are organized.

data structures can be linear, hierarchical or unordered.


data structures are also categorized as linear or dynamic
depending on their allocation strategy.

Motivation for Storage Structures


The main purpose for computer systems is to execute programs.
These programs together with the data they act upon, must be
stored in main memory during execution.

Ideally, we would want the programs and data to reside in the


main memory permanently.

However, this is not possible because


the main memory is usually too small to store all needed data
permanently.
the main memory is a volatile storage device that looses its content
when power is turned off or lost.

Motivation for Storage Structures (contd.)


Since large data sets cannot fit into main memory, secondary
storage structures are necessary to handle such data.

Magnetic disk is the most common form of secondary storage in


computer systems.

With storage structures, a small portion of the data is kept in


primary storage, and additional data is read from secondary
storage as needed.

A data storage structures is a means of organizing data as blocks


in secondary memory that optimizes I/O read/write operations.

Data storage structures include: Sequential files, Random


access files, Indexed files, B-Trees, B*-Trees.

Need for Efficient Storage Structures


Secondary memory (disk) is divided into equal-sized blocks.
The basic I/O operation transfers the contents of one disk block
to/from main memory.

A disk access is unbelievably expensive compared to a typical


computer instruction.

Without efficient data storage structures, a program will spend


most of its time retrieving data from secondary storage.

A binary search tree can be ideal for internal data retrievals, but
it's performance is inadequate with disk I/O operations.

How B-Trees Minimize Disk Accesses


B-Trees are used for this purpose and they are considered the
bread and butter of the database world.

A block of secondary memory is represented as a node in the


B-tree.

The more records we can fit into a block the fewer disk
accesses are required to find a record.

A B-Tree is the most flexible storage structure; it exploits the


fact that many records can be read in at a time.

In a B-tree, data has high locality of reference, a feature that


is extremely important when using secondary storage.

Course Overview: Fundamental Building


Blocks
Overview of OO concepts
We start with a review of fundamental OO concepts in Java.
In particular, we stress on inheritance, abstract classes and
interfaces.
Understanding of these will be assumed and used widely in the
remainder of the course.

Introduction to design patterns


These are a record of good practice in software development.
Software developers are appreciating the need to document good
practices in their trade in the forms of design patterns.
The use of design patterns in software development provides a
good blend of abstraction, reusability and flexibility.

Course Overview: The Need for Algorithm


Analysis
Real-life application development requires the ability to

choose among competing algorithms for any computer


process.
Important criteria for measuring algorithms are: simplicity,
clarity, and space- and time-efficiency.
To select better algorithms from a pool of alternatives, we
should be able to compute and compare their performances.
This process may require making compromises; e.g., spaceand time-efficiency can be improved at the cost of increased
programming complexity.
We'll introduce the Big-O notation used to estimate
comparative performance of algorithms.

Course Overview: Linear Data Structures


Review and Big-O analyses of linked lists
Arrays and linked lists are the atoms of all implementations
encountered in data structures.
They are needed in the implementations of Trees, Graphs,
Hashing techniques and Memory management.

A thorough understanding of them and their Big-O running


time is essential in this course.
Review & Application of stacks & queues
Stacks and queues are revisited using simple
applications.
They are applied further in the implementations of
recursive, tree and graph algorithms.

Course Overview: Recursion & Recursive


Algorithms
Recursion is an important and popular concept in computer science.
However, recursive algorithms are usually not as efficient as
iterative algorithms.

It is easier to reason about and perform correctness proof of


recursive algorithm than to do that for their iterative cousins.

We study different forms of recursion concluding with a study of a


backtracking algorithm.

Course Overview: Trees


We dedicate seven lectures to the study of trees and related
applications.

We discuss the motivation for and how they can be used to


provide efficient solutions to algorithms.

Present expression trees and outline their common


application areas.

We study Heap trees and their applications to heap sort and


priority queue.

We also cover binary search trees, AVL trees and concluding


with B-Trees.

Course Overview: Graphs


We start by introducing graphs, their applications and

outline
their possible representations in the computer.
We then attempt to give a full implementation of graphs
and
popular graph traversal techniques.
The remaining sessions exemplify and provide
implementations for the algorithms:
The topological sort algorithm.
Algorithms for tests of connectedness and cycles.
The shortest path algorithm.

Course Overview: Hashing Techniques


Review of searching techniques and introduction to hashing.
Hash tables and hash functions are then gently introduced using
simple examples.

The problem of collision is demonstrated and classical techniques


for collision resolutions are outlined.

The possibility of building perfect hash functions is demonstrated.


Implementation of the different hashing techniques is presented
at the end.

Course Overview: Data Comparison & memory


Mgt.
Data Compression
Presents motivations for, classifications of and kinds of data
compression schemes.
Gives animated examples of the following compression
algorithms:
Huffman coding
LZ78 coding
LZW coding
Memory management & garbage collection

So far, we understood how objects can become garbage


and assumed the space they held will be freed.
In conclusion, we give an insight into garbage collection
schemes and other memory management issues.

Concluding Exercise & Learning Goals


Concluding exercise:
Browse through each of the sections outlined in this
presentation.
As a guided tour through the course material.

Upon completing this course, you should be able to:


Identify,
Evaluate,
Select suitable and
Reliable data structures

For a range of applications.

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