Introduction to Data Structures and Algorithms

Basic Terms in DSA

Data type - a well-defined collection or category of data with a well-defined set of operations on it.

                  -A data type consists of

                           a.) domain(Set of values)

                           b.) set of operations

Data Structures – are a way of organizing and storing data so that they can be accessed and worked efficiently.  They define the relationship between the data, and the operations that can be performed on the data

 

Algorithms – a step-by-step procedure, which defines a set of instructions to be executed in a certain order to get the desired output.

For us developers we need to Analyze algorithms more and know about their behavior because it will tell us the pattern and performance profile of an algorithm that will be measured in the execution time and the space consumed by the algorithm.

There are 5 properties of an Algorithm

1.) Input - domain of the algorithm, it maybe zero or more quantities

2.) Output - one or more quantities that is the results of the algorithm

3.) Finiteness- an algorithm must terminate after a finite number of steps

4.) Definiteness - every step of an algorithm must be identifiable

5.) Effectiveness - operations of the algorithm will effectively produce an output that will be used to solve the problem in a finite time and can be done by a person using paper and pen