Linear data structures maintain their data in an ordered fashion.
- Stacks are simple data structures that maintain a LIFO, last-in first-out, ordering.
- The fundamental operations for a stack are
push,pop, andisEmpty. - Queues are simple data structures that maintain a FIFO, first-in first-out, ordering.
- The fundamental operations for a queue are
enqueue,dequeueandisEmpty - Prefix, infix, and postfix are all ways to write expressions.
- Stacks are very useful for designing algorithms to evaluate and translate expressions.
- Stacks can provide a reversal characteristic.
- Queues can assist in the construction of timing simulations.
- Simulations use random number generators to create a real-life situation and allow us to answer “what if” types of questions.
- Deques are data structures that allow hybrid behavior like that of stacks and queues.
- The fundamental operations for a deque are
addFront,addRear,removeFront,removeRearandisEmpty. - Lists are collections of items where each item holds a relative position.
- A linked list implementation maintains logical order without requiring physical storage requirements.
- Modification to the head of the linked list is a special case.