INTRODUCTION TO DATA STRUCTURE

In this blog, we are going to discuss what data structure is with a real-world example and why it is so important.

What is a Data Structure?

Data Structure is one of the most fundamental subjects in Computer Science and an in-depth understanding of this topic is very important especially when you are into the development/programming domain where you build efficient software systems and applications.

In technical terms, it is defined as a particular way of organizing and storing data in a computer so that it can be accessed and modified efficiently.

Let’s take up a real-world example:

We all use Dictionary to describe the meaning of a word. A Dictionary is a reference source containing words arranged in alphabetical order. As we know there are many words in the dictionary and we want to find the meaning for the word “coding” what do we do? We never search from the first page, instead, we jump into the page where words start with ‘c’ followed by ‘o’ and so on. This is possible because the words in the dictionary are arranged in a-z order i.e alphabetical order.

Imagine what if the words in the dictionary are not arranged in alphabetical order, then we have to start searching from the first page until the page where the word is found. It sounds insane, right?

This is why Data Structure is important as it is all about how to store data and how we can use the stored data efficiently.

Only when our data are structured properly, we can apply techniques to fetch them efficiently.

Why is Data Structure important?

Many people consider Data Structures as just an unnecessary module in their computer science course but Data Structure is one of the most important topics for Computer Science Engineers to get into a job. It’s because we are living in an information age and the world is changing as most of the companies are using concepts like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine learning which require a huge amount of data that has to be processed and stored. We have frameworks like Hadoop to process data but the foundation for it is Data Structure.

Characteristics of Data Structure:

1.Data Structure allows data to be stored in a particular manner

2.It allows efficient data search and retrieval.

3.Specific Data Structures are decided to work for a specific problem.

4.It allows a large amount of data such as a large database.

CONCLUSION:

Thus Data Structure helps in understanding the nature of the problem at a deeper level and thereby a better understanding of the world. It teaches us a way to be a better programmer and a way to think better.

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