Abstract Data Types

Abstract Data Types (ADTs)

Before defining abstract data types, let us consider the different view of system-defined data types. We all know that, by default, all primitive data types (int, float, etc.) support basic operations such as addition and subtraction. The system provides the implementations for the primitive data types. For user-defined data types we also need to define operations. The implementation for these operations can be done when we want to actually use them. That means, in general, user defined data types are defined along with their operations.

To simplify the process of solving problems, we combine the data structures with their operations and we call this Abstract Data Types (ADTs). An ADT consists of two parts:

  1. Declaration of data
  2. Declaration of operations

Commonly used ADTs include: Linked Lists, Stacks, Queues, Priority Queues, Binary Trees, Dictionaries, Hash Tables, Graphs, and many others. For example, stack uses LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) mechanism while storing the data in data structures. The last element inserted into the stack is the first element that gets deleted. Common operations of it are: creating the stack, pushing an element onto the stack, popping an element from stack, finding the current top of the stack, finding number of elements in the stack, etc.

While defining the ADTs do not worry about the implementation details. They come into the picture only when we want to use them.

Abstract Data Types

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