Introduction to Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis

The Need for Data Structures

Data structures organize data more efficient programs. More powerful computers more complex applications. More complex applications demand more calculations. Complex computing tasks are unlike our everyday experience.
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What is a data structure?

In a general sense, any data representation is a data structure. Example: An integer More typically, a data structure is meant to be an organization for a collection of data items.

Organizing Data
Any organization for a collection of records can be searched, processed in any order, or modified. The choice of data structure and algorithm can make the difference between a program running in a few seconds or many days.
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Efficiency
A solution is said to be efficient if it solves the problem within its resource constraints.

Space Time

The cost of a solution is the amount of resources that the solution consumes.

Costs and Benefits

A data structure requires a certain amount of: space for each data item it stores time to perform a single basic operation programming effort.

Example: Banking Application

Operations are (typically):

Open accounts (far less often than access) Close accounts (far less often than access) Access account to Add money Access account to Withdraw money

Example: Banking Application

Teller and ATM transactions are expected to take little time. Opening or closing an account can take much longer (perhaps up to an hour).

Example: Banking Application

When considering the choice of data structure to use in the database system that manages the accounts, we are looking for a data structure that:

Is inefficient for deletion Highly efficient for search Moderately efficient for insertion

Example: Banking Application

One data structure that meets these requirements is the hash table (following chapters). Records are accessible by account number (called an exact-match query) Hash tables allow for extremely fast exact-match search. Hash tables also support efficient insertion of new records. Deletions can also be supported efficiently (but too many deletions lead to some degradation in performance requiring the hash table to be reorganized).
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Example: City Database

Database system for cities and towns. Users find information about a particular place by name (exact-match query) Users also find all places that match a particular value (or range of values), such as location or population size (called a range query).
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Example: City Database

The database must answer queries quickly enough to satisfy the patience of a typical user. For an exact-match query, a few seconds is satisfactory For a range queries, the entire operation may be allowed to take longer, perhaps on the order of a minute.
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Example: City Database

The hash table is inappropriate for implementing the city database because:

The B+ tree (trees section) supports large databases:

It cannot perform efficient range queries

If the database is created once and then never changed, a simple linear index would be more appropriate.
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Insertion Deletion Range queries

Choosing Data Structures

By comparing the queue with the binary tree, you can see how the structure of the data affects what can be done efficiently with the data.

Choosing Data Structures

A queue is a good data structure to use for storing things that need to be kept in order, such as a set of documents waiting to be printed on a network printer.

Choosing Data Structures

The jobs will be printed in the order in which they are received.
Most network print servers maintain such a print queue. .

Choosing Data Structures

A binary tree is a good data structure to use for searching sorted data. The middle item from the list is stored in the root node, with lesser items to the left and greater items to the right.

Choosing Data Structures

A search begins at the root. The computer either find the data, or moves left or right, depending on the value for which you are searching. Each move down the tree cuts the remaining data in half.

Choosing Data Structures

Items can be located very quickly in a tree.
Telephone directory assistance information is stored in a tree, so that a name and phone number can be found quickly.

Choosing Data Structures

For some applications, a queue is the best data structure to use.
For others, a binary tree is better. Programmers choose from among many data structures based on how the data will be used by the program.

Data Structures in Alice

Alice has two built-in data structures that can be used to organize data, or to create other data structures:

Lists Arrays

Lists
A list is an ordered set of data. It is often used to store objects that are to be processed sequentially. A list can be used to create a queue.

Arrays
An array is an indexed set of variables, such as dancer[1], dancer[2], dancer[3], It is like a set of boxes that hold things.

A list is a set of items.

An array is a set of variables that each store an item.

Arrays and Lists

You can see the difference between arrays and lists when you delete items.

Arrays and Lists

In a list, the missing spot is filled in when something is deleted.

Arrays and Lists

In an array, an empty variable is left behind when something is deleted.

Selecting a Data Structure

Select a data structure as follows: 1. Analyze the problem to determine the resource constraints a solution must meet. 2. Determine the basic operations that must be supported. Quantify the resource constraints for each operation. 3. Select the data structure that best meets these requirements.
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Some Questions to Ask

Are all data inserted into the data structure at the beginning, or are insertions intersparsed with other operations? Can data be deleted? Are all data processed in some welldefined order, or is random access allowed?
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Data Structure Philosophy

Each data structure has costs and benefits. Rarely is one data structure better than another in all situations. A data structure requires:

space for each data item it stores, time to perform each basic operation, programming effort.
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continued

Data Structure Philosophy

Each problem has constraints on available space and time. Only after a careful analysis of problem characteristics can we know the best data structure for the task. Bank example:

Start account: a few minutes Transactions: a few seconds Close account: overnight

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Goals of this Course

1.

2.

Reinforce the concept that costs and benefits exist for every data structure. Learn the commonly used data structures.

These form a programmer's basic data structure ``toolkit.'

3.

Understand how to measure the cost of a data structure or program.

These techniques also allow you to judge the merits of new data structures that you or others might invent.
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Abstract Data Types

Abstract Data Type (ADT): a definition for a data type solely in terms of a set of values and a set of operations on that data type. Each ADT operation is defined by its inputs and outputs. Encapsulation: Hide implementation details.

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Data Structure

A data structure is the physical implementation of an ADT.

Each operation associated with the ADT is implemented by one or more subroutines in the implementation.

Data structure usually refers to an organization for data in main memory. File structure: an organization for data on peripheral storage, such as a disk drive.

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Labeling collections of objects

Humans deal with complexity by assigning a label to an assembly of objects. An ADT manages complexity through abstraction.

Hierarchies of labels

Ex1: transistors gates CPU. In a program, implement an ADT, then think only about the ADT, not its implementation.
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Logical vs. Physical Form

Data items have both a logical and a physical form. Logical form: definition of the data item within an ADT.

Ex: Integers in mathematical sense: +, -

Physical form: implementation of the data item within a data structure.

Ex: 16/32 bit integers, overflow.

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Data Type ADT: Type Operations Data Items: Logical Form

Data Structure: Storage Space Subroutines

Data Items: Physical Form

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Problems, Algorithms and Programs

Programmers deal with:

problems, algorithms and computer programs.

These are distinct concepts

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Problems

Problem: a task to be performed.

Best thought of as inputs and matching outputs. Problem definition should include constraints on the resources that may be consumed by any acceptable solution.

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Problems (-->)

Problems mathematical functions

A function is a matching between inputs (the domain) and outputs (the range). An input to a function may be single number, or a collection of information. The values making up an input are called the parameters of the function. A particular input must always result in the same output every time the function is computed.
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Algorithms and Programs

Algorithm: a method or a process followed to solve a problem.

A recipe: The algorithm gives us a recipe for solving the problem by performing a series of steps, where each step is completely understood and doable.

An algorithm takes the input to a problem (function) and transforms it to the output.

A mapping of input to output.

A problem can be solved by many algorithms.

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A problem can have many algorithms

For example, the problem of sorting can be solved by the following algorithms: Insertion sort Bubble sort Selection sort Shellsort Mergesort Others
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Algorithm Properties
An algorithm possesses the following properties:

It must be correct. It must be composed of a series of concrete steps. There can be no ambiguity as to which step will be performed next. It must be composed of a finite number of steps. It must terminate.

A computer program is an instance, or concrete representation, for an algorithm in some programming language.
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Programs

A computer program is a concrete representation of an algorithm in some programming language. Naturally, there are many programs that are instances of the same algorithms, since any modern programming language can be used to implement any algorithm.
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To Summarize:

A problem is a function or a mapping of inputs to outputs. An algorithm is a recipe for solving a problem whose steps are concrete and ambiguous. A program is an instantiation of an algorithm in a computer programming language.
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Example

Problem: find y = x to the power of 2 Algorithm1: Multiply X by X Algorithm2: Add X to itself X times Program1: for (int i = 0; i<x; i++) y +=x;

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Example (cont.)
Program2: (Assembly Intel 8086) mov bl,x // read x mov al,bl // store x mov cl,bl // int counter loop: add al,bl // al = al + x dec cl // decrement loop ctr jnz loop
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In class exercises

Think of a program you have used that is unacceptably slow. Identify other basic operations that the program performs quickly enough. Imagine that you are a shipping clerk for a large company. You have just been handed about 1000 invoices, each of which is a single sheet of paper with a large number in the upper right corner. The invoices must be sorted by this number, in order from lowest to highest. Write down as many different approaches to sorting the invoices as you can think of.

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