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Data Structure

Formal Sciences

A data structure is a defined way of organizing and storing data so that it can be accessed and changed efficiently, such as a list, a tree or a table of key and value pairs. Choosing the right data structure for a problem is often the decision that matters most for a program's performance, more than the choice of algorithm run on top of it, because the shape of the data determines which operations are fast and which are slow. Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, whose first volume, Fundamental Algorithms, appeared in 1968, gave the field one of its first systematic, mathematically rigorous surveys of data structures alongside the algorithms that operate on them.

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Associated With

Donald Knuth, Scientists

Knuth's multi-volume The Art of Computer Programming (from 1968) is the canonical systematic treatment of data structures and algorithms in computer science.

Programming Language, Concepts

Data structures are implemented and manipulated through constructs a programming language provides

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Source Data Structure (Wikipedia)

Studied In

Source Data Structure (Wikipedia)
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Also in Technology and Engineering Atlas: which this subject informed.

Sources
Data Structure (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Lead section
    A data structure is a way to organize and store data that is usually chosen for efficient access to data.
  • Belongs To: Computer Science, Lead sentence
    In computer science, a data structure is a way to organize and store data that is usually chosen for efficient access to data.
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Donald Knuth (Wikipedia)
WikipediaBiography section
Quote, Biography section
Knuth has been called the "father of the analysis of algorithms".
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