Chapter Two. Information Structures
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
— JOYCE KILMER (1913)
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records.
— HAMLET (Act I, Scene 5, Line 98)
2.1. Introduction
COMPUTER PROGRAMS usually operate on tables of information. In most cases these tables are not simply amorphous masses of numerical values; they involve important structural relationships between the data elements.
In its simplest form, a table might be a linear list of elements, when its relevant structural properties might include the answers to such questions as: Which element is first in the list? Which is last? Which elements precede and follow a given one? How many elements are in the list? A lot can ...
Get Art of Computer Programming, The: Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
