Data Types and Structures · ⁨أنواع البيانات وهياكلها⁩

Every variable needs a data type 数据类型 — the kind of value it holds and the operations allowed:

• INTEGER — a whole number (42, -7). For counts, indexes, IDs.
• REAL — a number with a fractional part (3.14). For money, measurements.
• STRING — characters in quotes ("Hello"). For text.
• CHAR — a single character ('A').
• BOOLEAN — TRUE or FALSE. For flags.
• DATE — a calendar date.

Pick the smallest precise type that fits: INTEGER for whole counts, BOOLEAN for flags (not the strings "yes"/"no").

The "give the appropriate data type" tables are decided by how the value is used: the average mark of a class is REAL (it has a fractional part); an email address is STRING; the number of students is INTEGER; whether a student has paid is BOOLEAN; a date of birth is DATE; an array index is always INTEGER; a single grade letter is CHAR; a phone number is a STRING, because it starts with 0 and is never used in arithmetic. A BOOLEAN is used for a flag with only two states: whether a search has found its target, whether a member has paid, whether a seat is booked. For the identifier table, the variable name must be meaningful too: NumberOfPeople, not n.

A record 记录 (a record structure 记录结构) holds several fields of different types under one name — useful when several values describe one thing.

This defines the type TStockItem; declare variables of it:

Use dot notation to reach each field 字段:

Use a record when values always belong together (a customer, a stock item); use separate variables for unrelated values.

Worked example. A club stores, for each student, a student ID (a string), a name, a date of birth and up to three club numbers (integers). Write pseudocode to declare the record type, an array to hold $3000$ students, and a statement that stores a name in the first element.

The marks: TYPE with the identifier and ENDTYPE; each field declared with a suitable type; the array declared with its bounds and OF Student; the field reached with the index and a dot. A "state the error in the record declaration" question usually points at a missing ENDTYPE, a field with no type, or a field declared as a STRING that must hold arithmetic. Two conventions score marks on their own: an unused element is marked with a value that cannot be real data (an empty string, -1, an ID of 0), and it is good practice to use the same marker everywhere so that every module can recognise an unused slot; an unused club field is 0. The benefits of an array of records, for a "state three benefits": all the data for one entity is held under one identifier; the fields can have different data types; one array replaces several parallel arrays that would have to be kept in step; the whole set can be processed by one loop or passed as one parameter; and adding a field changes the type definition only. For one customer the suitable structure is a record (fields of different types under one name); for all customers it is an array of records.

An array 数组 is an ordered collection of items of the same type, under one name, reached by an index 索引.

• element 元素 — one item in the array.
• bounds 边界 — the lowest and highest valid indices.
• dimension 维度 — 1-D (a list), 2-D (a table), etc.
• lower bound 下界 and upper bound 上界 — the first and last valid index; the number of elements is upper bound minus lower bound plus one, and for a 2-D array the product of the two counts.

So in ThisArray[n] ← 42 the array has one dimension, the index is the variable n (an INTEGER), and the element at that index receives 42. Before an array can be declared you need its data type as well as its bounds. To declare $120$ values that may include a decimal place: DECLARE Data : ARRAY[1:120] OF REAL; a $150$-row, two-column table of strings: DECLARE Data : ARRAY[1:150, 1:2] OF STRING, which has $300$ elements. The benefits of an array over separate variables, for a two-mark explain: one identifier instead of thirty; the elements can be processed by a loop with the index as the counter; the size is easy to change; and the whole set can be passed to a module as one parameter. An array can also replace a chain of selection statements: DaysInMonth[Month] looks up the answer directly instead of twelve IF clauses, which is shorter, faster to write and easier to maintain.

1-D arrays

Process every element with a FOR loop:

2-D arrays (2D array)

The first index is the row, the second the column. Use nested loops to visit every cell. Use 1-D for a single sequence, 2-D for two natural dimensions (a grid, rows × columns).

Common operations

A linear search 线性查找 checks each element until found:

To find a sum, count, maximum or minimum, set a running variable then sweep through:

A bubble sort 冒泡排序 puts an array in order: pass through it comparing each adjacent pair and swapping any that are out of order; repeat the passes until one pass makes no swaps.

Paper 2 asks for these algorithms both as pseudocode and as steps in words, and sometimes in their "efficient" form:

• Largest value: set Largest to the first element; for each remaining element, if it is bigger than Largest, store it in Largest; after the loop output Largest. For the position of the largest, keep a second variable that stores the index each time Largest changes.
• Linear search returning a position: set FoundAt ← -1 before the loop (a value that can never be a valid index, so it means "not found"); loop through the array; when the element matches, store the index and leave the loop; after the loop test FoundAt.
• Count or output the non-blank elements: compare each element with the marker for an unused element ("" or -1) and count or output only those that differ.
• Remove an item: find its index by a linear search; move every later element one place towards the start, so the gap closes; mark the last element as unused (or decrease the count).
• Insert into a sorted array: find the first index whose element is larger; move that element and every later one one place towards the end; store the new value in the gap.
• Efficient bubble sort: a Swapped flag so that the passes stop as soon as a pass makes no swap, and an upper limit that falls by one each pass because the largest value has already reached the end.

The marks are for the outer loop that repeats until no swaps, the flag set inside the IF, the three-line swap with a temporary variable, and the shrinking limit. A sort in "steps" (stepwise refinement) is: repeat until sorted; on each pass compare adjacent pairs; swap a pair that is out of order; after each pass the largest unsorted value is at the end. Two 1-D arrays of records or of parallel data are processed with one loop and one index; a 2-D array needs a nested loop, the outer over rows and the inner over columns, and a search in one row fixes the row index and loops over the column.

A file 文件 is data stored on secondary storage 辅助存储器, kept between program runs. Variables in RAM disappear when the program ends, so to save data permanently (high scores, records, settings) the program writes to a file. Files also let programs share data and restart from a saved state.

A text file 文本文件 holds one or more lines of readable characters; programs read and write text files line by line. Open a file before use and close it after:

EOF tests the end of file 文件结束 before reading. To write:

Always close every file — otherwise buffered writes may be lost and other programs may be locked out.

Why files (two marks): the data is kept after the program ends, so it is available the next time the program runs; it can be shared with other programs; and it can hold more than fits in memory. The characteristic of a text file that lets a program work through it is that it is a sequence of lines, read one after another from the start. The three modes: READ to read from the start; WRITE to create a new file, which deletes any existing contents, so it cannot be used to add to a file; APPEND to add lines at the end of an existing file. Test EOF before every read, and open the file only once, even when several modules use it.

Worked example. Write pseudocode for a procedure LastLines(FileName : STRING) that outputs the last three lines of a text file, in order.

Each new line pushes the previous three along, so when the file ends the three variables hold its last three lines; a file with fewer lines outputs empty strings. To output the first five lines, count the lines read and stop the loop at five or at EOF, whichever comes first; a file that is empty is detected by EOF being TRUE immediately after opening.

Fields in a line. A text file holds strings, so a record is written as one line with its fields joined by a separator 分隔符 character, and each number or Boolean converted with NUM_TO_STR (and read back with STR_TO_NUM, or by comparing with "TRUE"). Choose a separator that can never appear in the data: a comma or | for names and numbers, never a space when a name may contain one. If a field may contain any character, the separator can be confused with data; the fix is to put each field on its own line, or to write the field's length before it. One item per line is simple to read back but uses more lines and makes a record harder to see as a unit. Reading a file whose lines are in a known order (ascending by an ID) allows the search to stop as soon as a larger ID is read, instead of reading to the end. A save file that is created each time the game is saved needs a meaningful filename, for instance the player's name and the date and time, so that any earlier save can be restored.

An Abstract Data Type 抽象数据类型 (ADT) is a collection of data plus operations on it, defined by what it does, not how it is stored. The user works only through the operations; the implementation is hidden, so it can change without affecting code that uses the ADT. Know three: stack, queue, linked list.

The one-mark definition: an ADT is a collection of data together with a set of operations on that data. A stack, a queue, a linked list, a binary tree and an array are all ADTs. To justify a choice: a queue when items must be handled in the order they arrived (print jobs, key presses, customers in a shop), because it is first in, first out; a stack when the most recent item must be handled first (undo, going back through web pages, reversing an order, the return addresses of nested calls), because it is last in, first out; a linked list when items are inserted and deleted in the middle of an ordered sequence often, because only pointers change and nothing has to be shifted. To compare a stack and a queue: both are linear structures of items with an order, both are implemented with an array and pointers, and both need a check for full before adding and for empty before removing; a stack has one pointer and adds and removes at the same end, a queue has two pointers and adds at one end and removes at the other.

Stack

A stack 栈 works in LIFO 后进先出 order (Last In, First Out). Operations: push 入栈 (add to the top), pop 出栈 (remove from the top), peek (look at the top), and tests for empty/full. Uses: undo history, function-call return addresses, expression parsing, backtracking.

Worked example. A stack of characters holds, from the bottom, 'P', 'N', 'Z', 'X', 'Y', 'W', with the top-of-stack pointer at 'W' (memory location 202 of 200–207). The operations POP, POP, PUSH 'A', PUSH 'B', POP are performed. What is on the stack, and where does the pointer point?

The two pops remove 'W' then 'Y'; the pushes add 'A' then 'B' in their places; the last pop removes 'B'. The stack now holds 'P', 'N', 'Z', 'X', 'A' and the pointer is at 'A', location 203. The value that has been on the stack longest is the bottom item, 'P'; at most five further pops are possible before the stack is empty, and a pop on an empty stack is an error, which is why Pop() tests for empty first. A Push() function that returns TRUE on success first tests whether the pointer is at the top of the array (full) and returns FALSE if so. The array elements need no initialising before use, because the pointer alone says which elements are in use.

Queue

A queue 队列 works in FIFO 先进先出 order (First In, First Out). Operations: enqueue 入队 (add to the rear), dequeue 出队 (remove from the front), and tests for empty/full. Uses: print spooling, scheduling, breadth-first search, buffering.

To describe adding an item: check that the queue is not full; store the item at the position given by the end-of-queue pointer; increment the end pointer (and the count). To describe removing: check that the queue is not empty; read the item at the front pointer; increment the front pointer (and decrement the count). State the convention you use: if the end pointer marks the next free space, front and end pointers being equal means the queue is empty; if it marks the last item, equal pointers mean one item. In a linear queue the front pointer only ever moves forward, so cells behind it are wasted; that is what the circular queue below fixes. The two features of a queue to state: items are added at the rear and removed from the front, so the first item added is the first removed.

Linked list

A linked list 链表 stores data as a sequence of nodes 节点. Each node holds a value and a pointer 指针 to the next node; a head pointer marks the start, and the last node's pointer is a sentinel (e.g. NULL). Operations: insert, delete, search, and traverse 遍历 (visit each node in order). Its advantage over an array is cheap insertion/deletion (just adjust pointers); its disadvantage is slow random access (you must follow pointers from the head).

Adding a node in order (four marks): traverse the list from the head, following the pointers, until the node before the position is found (the last node whose value is smaller); take a free node and store the new value in it; set the new node's pointer to the address the previous node pointed to; set the previous node's pointer to the new node. If the new value belongs at the front, the head pointer is changed instead. Deleting a node: find the node before it, and set that node's pointer to the address the deleted node pointed to, so the list bypasses it; the freed node returns to the free list. Compared with a 1-D array, inserting or deleting in a linked list needs no shifting of the other items, and the list can grow until memory runs out; the cost is the extra pointer stored with every item, and that reaching the $n$th item means following $n$ pointers, since there is no direct index.

Stack using an array

Hold items in Stack[1:MaxSize] with an integer Top (0 when empty).

• Push(x): if Top = MaxSize the stack is full (overflow 溢出); else Top ← Top + 1; Stack[Top] ← x.
• Pop(): if Top = 0 the stack is empty (underflow 下溢); else return Stack[Top] and Top ← Top - 1.

Queue using a circular array

A simple queue lets Front and Rear march off the end, wasting the start. The fix is a circular array 循环数组 — when a pointer reaches MaxSize it wraps back to 1:

• Enqueue(x): check full; else Rear ← (Rear MOD MaxSize) + 1; Queue[Rear] ← x.
• Dequeue(): check empty; else return Queue[Front] and Front ← (Front MOD MaxSize) + 1.

Track a separate count to tell empty from full.

The algorithm for the end pointer, in words: if the count equals the size, report that the queue is full and stop; otherwise add one to the end pointer; if it is now past the last index, set it to the first index; store the item there and add one to the count. The declarations that a five-mark "describe the declaration and initialisation" answer lists: the array with its size and element type; a front pointer and an end pointer, both initialised to the first index (or the front to the first index and the end to the next free space); and a count of items, initialised to $0$.

For example, with MaxSize = 6: if Rear = 5, then (5 MOD 6) + 1 = 6, so the next item goes in cell 6; if Rear = 6, then (6 MOD 6) + 1 = 1, so the pointer wraps back to cell 1.

Linked list using an array

Use an array of records, each with a Next index:

A free list 空闲列表 chains the unused slots, just as the data list chains its used ones. To insert: take a slot from FreeListHead, set the new node's value and Next, and update the previous node's Next (or Head). To delete: unlink the node and return its slot to the free list. This gives the flexibility of a linked structure with the static allocation of an array.

Worked example. A linked list is held in a Data array and a Pointer array, with Start pointing to index 1. The list is 1 → 3 → 4 (index 1 holds D40, index 3 holds D32, index 4 holds D11, whose pointer is $\emptyset$); the free list starts at index 2 and continues 2 → 5. Insert D6 between D32 and D11.

Take the first free node, index 2, and set FreeStart to its pointer, 5; store D6 in Data[2]; set Pointer[2] to the value Pointer[3] held, which is 4; set Pointer[3] to 2. The list reads 1 → 3 → 2 → 4 and the free list is 5 → $\emptyset$. The answer to "how can the linked list be implemented" is exactly these parts: an array (or array of records) for the data, a parallel array for the pointers holding indices, a start pointer, a free-list pointer and a null value such as $-1$ for the end.

Worked example. A circular queue is held in an array of size 5 (indices 0 to 4) with Front = 3, Rear = 3 and one item stored. Two items are added, then two are removed. Where are the pointers, and why use a circular queue at all? Every move uses (pointer + 1) MOD size, so the pointers wrap. Adding twice moves Rear: $3 \rightarrow 4$, then $4 \rightarrow 0$ (because $(4+1) \bmod 5 = 0$), so Rear = 0 and three items are stored. Removing twice moves Front the same way: $3 \rightarrow 4$, then $4 \rightarrow 0$, leaving Front = 0 and one item. The wrap is the whole point: in a linear array queue the pointers march to the end and the freed space at the front is wasted even when the queue is empty. Remember a queue removes at the Front and adds at the Rear - a stack uses one pointer for both.

A definition question is marked against fixed wording. Learn these exactly.

• Choose the right data structure and justify it (a record for mixed fields, a 2-D array for a grid).
• Know how to implement a stack, queue and linked list with an array and pointers (top; front/rear; next).
• Distinguish an ADT (its behaviour) from its implementation (array plus pointers).

Common mistakes

• A record declaration without ENDTYPE, or fields without types. Every field is a DECLARE line with a type.
• Reading past the end of a file, or writing with WRITE when the file must keep its contents. Test EOF before each read; use APPEND to add.
• Writing a number to a text file without converting it. A file holds strings: NUM_TO_STR out, STR_TO_NUM back.
• Forgetting the checks. Push and enqueue test for full first; Pop and dequeue test for empty first, and the answer says so.
• Losing the rest of the list when inserting a node. Set the new node's pointer to the old next node before changing the previous node's pointer.
• A linear search that never says "not found". Initialise the position to $-1$ and test it after the loop.