A data structure is the organization of data in computers memory or in a file.
Some examples of data structures are: array, stack, queue, link list, binary tree, hash table, heap and graph. Data structures are often used to build databases. Typically, data structures are manipulated using various algorithms.
Based on the concept of Abstract Data Types (ADT), we define data structure by the following three components
- Operations: Specifications of external appearance of data structure
- Storage structures: Organizations of data implemented in lower-level data structures.
- Algorithms: Description on how to manipulate information in the storage structures to obtain the results defined for operations.