Welcome back, In this article we are going to cover theories about Data Structures, what Data Structures is and how it works internally. We are going to learn about that.

What is Data Structures?

Data Structures can be defined as arrangement of collections of data items, so the operation on that can be run efficiently on the time of execution of the program in main memory.

A data structures is not only used for organizing the data. It is also used for processing, retrieving, and storing data. There are different basic and advanced types of data structures that are used in almost every program or software system that has been developed. So we must have good knowledge about data structures.

Classification of Data Structures

1. Linear Data Structures: Data structure in which data elements are arranged sequentially or linearly, where each element is attached to its previous and next adjacent elements, is called a linear data structure. Linear Data structure have two subpoints as shown in image above
   1. Static Data Structures: Static data structure has a fixed memory size. It is easier to access the elements in a static data structure. Example of this data structure is an array.
   2. Dynamic Data Structures: In dynamic data structure, the size is not fixed. It can be updated during the runtime which may be considered efficient concerning the memory (space) complexity of the code. Examples of this data structure are queue, stack, linked list etc.
2. Non-Linear Data Structures: Data structures where data elements are not placed sequentially or linearly are called non-linear data structures. In a non-linear data structure, we can’t traverse all the elements in a single run only. Examples of non-linear data structures are trees and graphs.