The first time I heard the word Data structure, I thought I would need special abilities to comprehend it, but I was wrong because just like Algorithms exist in real life beyond programming, so do they.

Hello friends, I am Ifeoluwa Adewunmi, and in this guide, I will discuss the term Data structure by explaining the following:

• Data structure in Real World
• Data structure in Computer Science

WHAT IS DATA STRUCTURE IN REAL-WORLD

A data structure is a way of arranging or organising items so that operations involving these items can be done fast and efficiently. These operations could be in the form of storing and retrieving items.

For example, let me share how my friend KIKI solved a homemade problem using a data structure. KIKI, apart from being a baker, also loves to attend parties (OWAMBE) because of her job as an event planner.

However, KIKI’s love for parties makes her buy more dresses (ASO-EBI), and this leads to a homemade problem; her wardrobe increased massively with different kinds of expensive dresses (ASO-EBI) and picking an outfit for a specific event becomes daunting, and this makes KIKI get to events behind schedule.

How was this solved using a Data Structure?

KIKI thought of two approaches to solve the scattered arrangements of dresses in her wardrobe, which are:

• Arrangement of her dresses by colours (organising dresses with the same colour in the same section) in the wardrobe.
• Arrangement of her dresses by fabric type (organising dresses with the same fabric quality, style and manufacturer in the same section) in the wardrobe

After soliloquising for a few minutes, she decided to go with the first approach because the events she attends only request guests to appear in a dress code (colour) and do not impose the fabric type or design they must put on.

In the KIKI’s Wardrobe example:

• The data structure would be the neat arrangements of dresses in the wardrobe by colours,
• The items it contains are the expensive party wears (ASO-EBI)
• The operation would be selecting an outfit for a specific event from her wardrobe.

WHAT IS DATA STRUCTURE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

In computer science, software and written programmes rely on data in one way or the other, and we don’t want these data to be scattered all across the memory as KIKI’s dress was scattered in her wardrobe but neatly arranged in the memory for easy accessibility. How do we archive this neat arrangement of data in the computer memory? Here is where DATA STRUCTURE comes in.

A Data Structure is a way data are neatly represented in the computer memory so it can be used efficiently. By efficiently, I mean that computer operations are performed using as few resources in terms of execution time and memory. Data structures are the implementation of abstract data types in a concrete and physical setting. They do this by using algorithms.

There are several kinds of data structures such as; Array, Linked List, Stack, Queue, Hash Table, Tree, Graph etc. However, the scope of this guide wouldn’t explain any types of Data Structures, but subsequently, I will explain them one after the other. So, kindly hit the follow button to get notified when I release a guide in the future.

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