C++ Plus Data Structures

Historically, a course on data structures has been a mainstay of most computer<br>science departments. Over the last 18 years, however, the focus of this course<br>has broadened considerably. The topic of data structures has now been subsumed<br>under the broader topic of abstract data types (ADTs)—the study of classes of<br>objects whose logical behavior is defined by a set of values and a set of operations.<br>The term abstract data type describes a comprehensive collection of data values<br>and operations; the term data structures refers to the study of data and how to represent<br>data objects within a program; that is, the implementation of structured relationships.<br>The shift in emphasis is representative of the move towards more<br>abstraction in computer science education. We now are interested in the study of the<br>abstract properties of classes of data objects in addition to how the objects might be<br>represented in a program. Johannes J. Martin put it succinctly: “. . . depending on<br>the point of view, a data object is characterized by its type (for the user) or by its<br>structure (for the implementor).”