Chapter Summary

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A data type is characterized by how the data is structured and stored and also by what operations are possible. An abstract data type (ADT) specifies in an abstract manner the properties and operations characterizing a type. Conceptually, you can translate an ADT to a particular programming language in two steps. The first step is defining the programming interface. In C, you can do this by using a header file to define type names and to provide function prototypes that correspond to the allowed operations. The second step is implementing the interface. In C, you can do this with a source code file that supplies the function definitions corresponding to the prototypes .

The list, the queue, and the binary tree are examples of ADTs commonly used in computer programming. Often they are implemented using dynamic memory allocation and linked structures, but sometimes implementing them with an array is a better choice.

When you program using a particular type, say a queue or a tree, you should write the program in terms of the type interface. That way, you can modify and improve the implementation without having to alter programs by using the interface.

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