Newbie to Newbie Blog Part Two

Welcome back to my blog.  In this post, I will explain in “newbie” terms how to apply algorithmic design and data structures techniques in developing structured programs.  Also, I will try to explain why some algorithms and data structure designs are better than others.  In addition, you will see an example of why one design is used before another design is used. 

An algorithm is a well-defined set of rules to solve problems.  These computational problems can be anywhere from re-arranging numbers in a specific order, from smallest to biggest, or solving mathematical problems.  Data structure offers services such as data organization, retrieval, and storage.   Algorithms help with data processing and doing calculations to solve problems.  Many structures, such as Arrays, Stacks, Linked Lists, and Tree, serve different purposes.  These data structures construct, arrange, and configure data differently, such as in linear order for a linked list or in an abstract hierarchical way like the Tree.  Ultimately there is a purpose for each type of data structure.

I would not go as far as to say that some algorithms and data structure designs are better than others.  However, as mentioned before, each algorithm and data structure design can work better in specific scenarios.  For example, while an Insertion sort algorithm would work on a large data set like Google Search, my suggestion would be to implement something like the Quick Sort algorithm.  The quick sort algorithm is known to be efficient for large data sets.  But this is not necessarily the case for smaller simple data sets.  Although computers are getting faster and more efficient,  I must recognize that some algorithms are unsuitable for some data types.  Choosing the proper data structure and algorithm can distinguish between a slow and sluggish data search and a quick and efficient one.