EE 2204 - Data Structures

and Algorithms

N Radhakrishnan
Assistant Professor
Anna University, Chennai
 Topics
 Introduction
 Definitions
 Classification of Data Structures
 Arrays and Linked Lists
 Abstract Data Types [ADT]
• The List ADT
 Array-based Implementation
 Linked List Implementation
 Cursor-based Implementation
 Doubly Linked Lists

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 Data Structure [Wikipedia]

 Data Structure is a particular way of storing

and organizing data in a computer so that it
can be used efficiently.
 Different kinds of data structures are suited
to different kinds of applications.
 Storing and retrieving can be carried out on
data stored in both main memory and in
secondary memory.

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 Merriam-Webster's Definition

 Way in which data are stored for efficient

search and retrieval.
 The simplest data structure is the one-
dimensional (linear) array.
 Data items stored non-consecutively in
memory may be linked by pointers.
 Many algorithms have been developed for
storing data efficiently

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 Algorithms [Wikipedia]

 An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for

calculations.
 An algorithm is an effective method
expressed as a finite list of well-defined
instructions for calculating a function.
 The transition from one state to the next is
not necessarily deterministic; some
algorithms incorporate random input.

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 Merriam-Webster's Definition

 Procedure that produces the answer to a

question or the solution to a problem in a
finite number of steps.
 An algorithm that produces a yes or no
answer is called a decision procedure; one
that leads to a solution is a computation
procedure.
 Example: A mathematical formula and the
instructions in a computer program

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 Data Structure Classification
 Primitive / Non-primitive
• Basic Data Structures available / Derived from
Primitive Data Structures
 Homogeneous / Heterogeneous
• Elements are of the same type / Different types
 Static / Dynamic
• memory is allocated at the time of compilation /
run-time
 Linear / Non-linear
• Maintain a Linear relationship between element

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 ADT - General Concept

 Problem solving with a computer means

processing data
 To process data, we need to define the data
type and the operation to be performed on
the data
 The definition of the data type and the
definition of the operation to be applied to
the data is part of the idea behind an
Abstract Data Type (ADT)

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 ADT - General Concept

 The user of an ADT needs only to know that

a set of operations are available for the data
type, but does not need to know how they
are applied
 Several simple ADTs, such as integer, real,
character, pointer and so on, have been
implemented and are available for use in
most languages

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 Data Types

 A data type is characterized by:

• A set of values
• A data representation, which is common to all
these values, and
• A set of operations, which can be applied
uniformly to all these values

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 Primitive Data Types
 Languages like ‘C’ provides the following
primitive data types:
• boolean
• char, byte, int
• float, double
 Each primitive type has:
• A set of values
• A data representation
• A set of operations
 These are “set in stone”.
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 ADT Definition [Wikipedia]

 In computer science, an abstract data type

(ADT) is a mathematical model for a certain
class of data structures that have similar
behavior.
 An abstract data type is defined indirectly,
only by the operations that may be
performed on it and by mathematical
constraints on the effects (and possibly cost)
of those operations.

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 ADT Definition [Wikipedia]
 An ADT may be implemented by specific data
types or data structures, in many ways and
in many programming languages; or
described in a formal specification language.
 example, an abstract stack could be defined
by three operations:
• push, that inserts some data item onto the
structure,
• pop, that extracts an item from it, and
• peek, that allows data on top of the structure to
be examined without removal.
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 Definition from techforum4you

 Abstract data types or ADTs are a

mathematical specification of a set of data
and the set of operations that can be
performed on the data.
 They are abstract in the sense that the focus
is on the definitions and the various
operations with their arguments.
 The actual implementation is not defined,
and does not affect the use of the ADT.

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 ADT in Simple Words

 Definition:
• Is a set of operation
• Mathematical abstraction
• No implementation detail
 Example:
• Lists, sets, graphs, stacks are examples of
ADT along with their operations

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 Why ADT?
 Modularity
• divide program into small functions
• easy to debug and maintain
• easy to modify
• group work
 Reuse
• do some operations only once
 Easy to change the implementation
• transparent to the program

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 Implementing an ADT
 To implement an ADT, you need to choose:
• A data representation
 must be able to represent all necessary values of the
ADT
 should be private
• An algorithm for each of the necessary operation:
 must be consistent with the chosen representation
 all auxiliary (helper) operations that are not in the
contract should be private
 Remember: Once other people are using it
• It’s easy to add functionality

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 The List ADT
 The List is an
• Ordered sequence of data items called
elements
• A1, A2, A3, …,AN is a list of size N
• size of an empty list is 0
• Ai+1 succeeds Ai
• Ai-1 preceeds Ai
• Position of Ai is i
• First element is A1 called “head”
• Last element is AN called “tail”

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 Operations on Lists

 MakeEmpty
 PrintList
 Find
 FindKth
 Insert
 Delete
 Next
 Previous

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 List – An Example

 The elements of a list are 34, 12, 52, 16, 12

• Find (52) -> 3
• Insert (20, 4) -> 34, 12, 52, 20, 16, 12
• Delete (52) -> 34, 12, 20, 16, 12
• FindKth (3) -> 20

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 List - Implementation

 Lists can be implemented using:

• Arrays
• Linked List
• Cursor [Linked List using Arrays]

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 Arrays

 Array is a static data structure that

represents a collection of fixed number of
homogeneous data items or
 A fixed-size indexed sequence of elements,
all of the same type.
 The individual elements are typically stored
in consecutive memory locations.
 The length of the array is determined when
the array is created, and cannot be changed.

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 Arrays

 Any component of the array can be inspected

or updated by using its index.
• This is an efficient operation
• O(1) = constant time
 The array indices may be integers (C, Java)
or other discrete data types (Pascal, Ada).
 The lower bound may be zero (C, Java), one
(Fortran), or chosen by the programmer
(Pascal, Ada)

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 Different Types of Arrays

 One-dimensional array: only one index is

used
 Multi-dimensional array: array involving
more than one index
 Static array: the compiler determines how
memory will be allocated for the array
 Dynamic array: memory allocation takes
place during execution

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 One Dimensional Static Array

 Syntax:
• ElementType arrayName [CAPACITY];
• ElementType arrayName [CAPACITY] =
{ initializer_list };
 Example in C++:
• int b [5];
• int b [5] = {19, 68, 12, 45, 72};

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 Array Output Function

void display(int array[],int num_values)

{
for (int I = 0; i<num_values; i++)
cout<< array[i] << “ ”;
}

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 List Implemented Using Array

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 Operations On Lists

 We’ll consider only few operations

and not all operations on Lists
 Let us consider Insert
 There are two possibilities:
• Ordered List
• Unordered List

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 Insertion into an Ordered List

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 Insertion in Detail

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 Insertion

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 Deletion

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 Find / Search
 Searching is the process of looking for a specific element
in an array
 For example, discovering whether a certain score is
included in a list of scores.
 Searching, like sorting, is a common task in computer
programming.
 There are many algorithms and data structures devoted
to searching.
 The most common one is the linear search.

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 Linear Search

 The linear search approach compares the given value

with each element in the array.
 The method continues to do so until the given value
matches an element in the list or the list is exhausted
without a match being found.
 If a match is made, the linear search returns the index of
the element in the array that matches the key.
 If no match is found, the search returns -1.

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 Linear Search

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 Linear Search Function

int LinearSearch (int a[], int n, int key)

{
int i;
for(i=0; i<n; i++)
{
if (a[i] == key)
return i;
}
return -1;
}

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 Using the Function

 LinearSearch (a,n,item,loc)
 Here "a" is an array of the size n.
 This algorithm finds the location of the
element "item" in the array "a".
 If search item is found, it sets loc to the
index of the element; otherwise, it sets loc
to -1
 index=linearsearch(array, num, key)

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 PrintList Operation

int myArray [5] = {19,68,12,45,72};

/* To print all the elements of the array
for (int i=0;i<5;i++)
{
printf("%d", myArray[i]);
}

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 Implementing Deletion

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 Deletion - Another Method

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 Operations Running Times
PrintList O(N)
Find

Insert O(N) (on avarage half

Delete needs to be
moved)

FindKth
Next O(1)
Previous

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 Disadvantages of Using Arrays

 Need to define a size for array

• High overestimate (waste of space)
 insertion and deletion is very slow
• need to move elements of the list
 redundant memory space
• it is difficult to estimate the size of array

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 Linked List
 Series of nodes
• not adjacent in memory
• contain the element and a pointer to a node
containing its succesor
 Avoids the linear cost of insertion and
deletion!

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 Singly Linked List

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 Doubly Linked List

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 Singly Linked List

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 Singly-linked List - Addition

 Insertion into a singly-linked list has two

special cases.
 It's insertion a new node before the head (to
the very beginning of the list) and after the
tail (to the very end of the list).
 In any other case, new node is inserted in
the middle of the list and so, has a
predecessor and successor in the list.

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 Empty list case
 When list is empty,
which is indicated by
(head == NULL)
condition, the
insertion is quite
simple.
 Algorithm sets both
head and tail to
point to the new
node.

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 Add first
 In this case, new node is inserted right
before the current head node.

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 Add First - Step 1
 It can be done in two steps:
• Update the next link of the new node, to point to
the current head node.

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 Add First - Step 2

• Update head link to point to the new node.

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 Add last

 In this case, new node is inserted right after

the current tail node.

 It can be done in two steps:

• Update the next link of the current tail node, to

point to the new node.
• Update tail link to point to the new node.

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 Insert - General Case
 In general case, new node is always inserted
between two nodes, which are already in the
list. Head and tail links are not updated in
this case.
 We need to know two nodes "Previous" and
"Next", between which we want to insert the
new node.
 This also can be done in two steps:
• Update link of the "previous" node, to point to the new
node.
• Update link of the new node, to point to the "next" node.

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May 16, 2024 Anna University, Chennai - 600 025 57
 Singly-linked List - Deletion

 There are four cases, which can occur while

removing the node.
 We have the same four situations, but the
order of algorithm actions is opposite.
 Notice, that removal algorithm includes the
disposal of the deleted node - unnecessary in
languages with automatic garbage collection
(Java).

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 List has only one node
 When list has only
one node, that the
head points to the
same node as the
tail, the removal is
quite simple.
 Algorithm disposes
the node, pointed
by head (or tail)
and sets both head
and tail to NULL.

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 Remove First

 In this case, first node (current head node) is

removed from the list.
 It can be done in two steps:
• Update head link to point to the node, next to the
head.
• Dispose removed node.

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May 16, 2024 Anna University, Chennai - 600 025 61
 Remove Last
 In this case, last node (current tail node) is
removed from the list. This operation is a bit
more tricky, than removing the first node,
because algorithm should find a node, which
is previous to the tail first.
 It can be done in three steps:
• Update tail link to point to the node, before the
tail. In order to find it, list should be traversed
first, beginning from the head.
• Set next link of the new tail to NULL.
• Dispose removed node.

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May 16, 2024 Anna University, Chennai - 600 025 63
 Remove - General Case

 In general case, node to be removed is

always located between two list nodes. Head
and tail links are not updated in this case.
 We need to know two nodes "Previous" and
"Next", of the node which we want to delete.
 Such a removal can be done in two steps:
• Update next link of the previous node, to point to
the next node, relative to the removed node.
• Dispose removed node.

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May 16, 2024 Anna University, Chennai - 600 025 65
 Advantages of Using Linked Lists

 Need to know where the first node is

• the rest of the nodes can be accessed
 No need to move the elements in the list
for insertion and deletion operations
 No memory waste

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 Cursor Implementation

Problems with linked list implementation:

 Same language do not support pointers!

• Then how can you use linked lists ?

 new and free operations are slow
• Actually not constant time
 SOLUTION: Implement linked list on an array -
called CURSOR

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 Cursor Implementation - Diagram

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 Cursor Implementation

If L = 5, then L represents list (A, B, E)

If M = 3, then M represents list (C, D, F)
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 Arrays - Pros and Cons

 Pros
• Directly supported by C
• Provides random access
 Cons
• Size determined at compile time
• Inserting and deleting elements is
time consuming

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 Linked Lists - Pros and Cons

 Pros
• Size determined during runtime
• Inserting and deleting elements is
quick
 Cons
• No random access
• User must provide programming
support

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 Application of Lists

 Lists can be used

 To store the records sequentially
 For creation of stacks and queues
 For polynomial handling
 To maintain the sequence of operations
for do / undo in software
 To keep track of the history of web sites
visited

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 Why Doubly Linked List ?

 given only the pointer location, we cannot access its

predecessor in the list.
 Another task that is difficult to perform on a linear
linked list is traversing the list in reverse.
 Doubly linked list A linked list in which each node is
linked to both its successor and its predecessor
 In such a case, where we need to access the node
that precedes a given node, a doubly linked list is
useful.

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 Doubly Linked List

 In a doubly linked list, the nodes are linked

in both directions. Each node of a doubly
linked list contains three parts:
• Info: the data stored in the node
• Next: the pointer to the following node
• Back: the pointer to the preceding node

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 Operations on Doubly Linked Lists

 The algorithms for the insertion and deletion

operations on a doubly linked list are
somewhat more complicated than the
corresponding operations on a singly linked
list.
 The reason is clear: There are more pointers
to keep track of in a doubly linked list.

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 Inserting Item

 As an example, consider the Inserting an

item.
 To link the new node, after a given node, in
a singly linked list, we need to change two
pointers:
• newNode->next and
• location->next.
 The same operation on a doubly linked list
requires four pointer changes.

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 Singly Linked List Insertion

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 Doubly Linked List Insertion

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 The Order is Important

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 Doubly Linked List - Deletion

 One useful feature of a doubly linked list is

its elimination of the need for a pointer to a
node's predecessor to delete the node.
 Through the back member, we can alter the
next member of the preceding node to make
it jump over the unwanted node.
 Then we make the back pointer of the
succeeding node point to the preceding node.

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 Doubly Linked List - Deletion

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 Special Cases of Deletion

 We do, however, have to be careful about

the end cases:
• If location->back is NULL, we are deleting the
first node
• if location->next is NULL, we are deleting the last
node.
• If both location->back and location->next are
NULL, we are deleting the only node.

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 Interaction

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