Every computer science curriculum in the world includes a course on data
structures and algorithms. Data structures are that important;
they improve our quality of life and even save lives on a regular basis.
Many multi-million and several multi-billion dollar companies have been
built around data structures.
How can this be? If we stop to think about it, we realize that we
interact with data structures constantly.
- Open a file: File system
data structures are used to locate
the parts of that file on disk so they can be retrieved. This isn't
easy; disks contain hundreds of millions of blocks. The contents of your
file could be stored on any one of them.
- Look up a contact on your phone: A data
structure is used to look up a phone number in your contact list
based on partial
information even before you finish dialing/typing. This isn't easy;
your phone may contain information about a lot of people--everyone
you have ever contacted via phone or email--and your phone doesn't
have a very fast processor or a lot of memory.
- Log in to your favourite social network:
The network servers
use your login information to look up your account information.
This isn't easy; the most popular social networks have hundreds of
millions of active users.
- Do a web search:
The search engine uses data structures to find
the web pages containing your search terms. This isn't easy; there
are over 8.5 billion web pages on the Internet and each page contains
a lot of potential search terms.
- Phone emergency services (9-1-1):
The emergency services network
looks up your phone number in a data structure that maps phone numbers
to addresses so that police cars, ambulances, or fire trucks can be
sent there without delay. This is important; the person making the
call may not be able to provide the exact address they are calling
from and a delay can mean the difference between life or death.
Subsections
opendatastructures.org