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Data Structures and algorithms
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This document contains the basics of DSA only till 2D arrays, do not worry, I would be uploading other documents too as an continuation of this.
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Data Structures & Algorithms1.1 Arrays in Data Structure | Declaration, Initialization,
Memory representation
Shashank's Lectures CS IT
Understanding Memory and Arrays in Programming
In programming, memory is essentially a long tape of bytes, with each byte containing 8 bits.
This can be extended to both sides, making it open-ended. To understand the need for
arrays, we need to examine how areas can be declared, initialised, and represented in
memory.
Storing Values in Memory
To store a value in memory, we need to know how much space will be allocated for it. For
example, the data type int typically takes up 4 bytes to store an integer. The number 5 would
need to be converted to binary, which is 32 bits or 4 bytes. In traditional compilers, we
generally take 2 or 4 bytes to be the data type for storing numbers. So, if we were storing an
integer, it would take up 2-4 bytes in memory.
The memory manager would allocate some memory for storing a variable, and the value
stored in memory would be represented in binary. For example, the value stored in a variable
could be 5, which would be represented as 101 in binary.
Using Arrays
An array is a collection of more than one element of the same datatype. For example, an
array of characters would be of the data type char, and an array of integers would be of the
data type int. The number of elements in an array is determined by the size of the array.
To declare an array in programming, we use a specific syntax. In C language, for example, we
would write:
, Data Structures & Algorithms
int n;
to declare an integer variable. To declare an array, we would use:
int a[16];
This creates an array called "a" with 16 elements.
Initializing Arrays
Arrays can also be initialized with values. For example, we could initialize an array of integers
with the values 1, 2, and 3 like this:
int a[3] = {1, 2, 3};
Representing Arrays in Memory
To represent an array in memory, we need to know how the elements of the array are stored.
In a one-dimensional array, the elements are stored in a single row with multiple columns.
Each element of the array takes up space in memory, depending on its data type. For
example, an array of integers would take up 2-4 bytes of memory per element.
Overall, understanding memory and arrays is crucial to programming, as they are
fundamental building blocks of many programs and applications.
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