3.2 Fundamentals of data structures

Data structures and abstract data types

Data structures

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Additional information

Be familiar with the concept of data structures.

It may be helpful to set the concept of a data structure in various contexts that students may already be familiar with. It may also be helpful to suggest/demonstrate how data structures could be used in a practical setting.

Single- and multi-dimensional arrays (or equivalent)

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Additional information

Use arrays (or equivalent) in the design of solutions to simple problems.

A one-dimensional array is a useful way of representing a vector. A two-dimensional array is a useful way of representing a matrix. More generally, an n-dimensional array is a set of elements with the same data type that are indexed by a tuple of n integers, where a tuple is an ordered list of elements.

Fields, records and files

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Be able to read/write from/to a text file.

 

Be able to read/write data from/to a binary (non-text) file.