Abstract Data Type

Terms
 Type – a collection of values
 Data Type – a type together with a collection of
operations to manipulate the type
 Abstract Data Type (ADT) – defines a data
type solely in terms of a type and a set of operations
on that type
 Data Structure – the physical implementation
of the ADT
Data Structures and OOP
Principles
 Data Structures are Objects
 Abstraction (ability to distill a software system into its most
basic parts) and Encapsulation (implementing the
abstraction without revealing how is implemented) applies to
Data Structures
 Inheritance and Polymorphism
 Data Structures are often “containers” and share
similar operations
 
Defining an ADT
Stages/Phases of defining an ADT
1. Specifications
-structure; operations/functions; definition of the
ADT
2. Representation or variable/constant declaration
-choosing the appropriate data structure fitted for
the given specs used in no. 1.
3. Implementation
-choosing the appropriate commands/programming
statements given a chosen programming language
to implement the necessary operations of each of
the defined functions.
 A. Definition: Letter String
-         A letter string is a sequence of n characters.The length is
referred to as length.
Operations:
1. Append- to add a character at the tail of the sequence.
2. Remove- to delete a character at any position in the given
sequence.
3. Print- display the elements of the letter string.
4. Makenull- make the letter string empty.
5. Empty- returns true if the letter string is empty otherwise it
returns false.
6. Full- returns true if the letter string is full otherwise it returns
false.
1. APPEND
Pre: LS is not full
Post: a new char is added at the tail end of the LS & likewise the gap
is closed
 2. REMOVE
Pre: not empty
Post: one character should have been removed from the LS
 3. PRINT
Pre: LS is not empty/none
Post: LS is printed
 
4. MAKENULL
Pre: 0 ≤ length ≤ ls. Length/none
Post: All elements were deleted
 5. EMPTY
Pre: 0≤length≤ ls /none
Post: returned TRUE if LS is empty, otherwise returned false
 6. FULL
Pre: LS must be full/none
Post: returned true if LS is full, otherwise returned false
 
Representation:

int n=100;
class LS
{char letter_string [n];
int length;
void append(char c);
void remove(int n);
void print(int i); void makenull()
int empty(); int full(); };
Implementation
void LS :: append (char c)
{ if (LS.length != n-1)
{ LS.length = LS.length + 1;
LS.letter_string [LS.length ] = c;}
else if (LS.length == n-1)
cout<<“the letterstring is full”;
 }
void LS :: remove (int n)
{if (LS.length<0)
cout<<”string is empty”;
else if (LS.length<n)
cout<<”position is beyond the length”;
else {
for (int i=n;i<LS.length; i++)
LS.letter_string[i] = LS.letter_string [i+1];
}
LS.length = LS.length-1
}
void LS :: print (int i)
{ if (LS.length<= -1) cout<<”empty”;
else
for( i=0; i<=LS.length; i++)
cout<<”LS.letter_string[i]”;}
 void LS::makenull ()
{ if (LS.length> -1)
LS.length= -1;
else
cout<<”theres no character in LS”;
}
 
int LS ::empty ()
{ if (LS.length<0)
return 1;
else return 0; }
 
int LS:: full ()
{ if (LS.length>99)
return 1;
else return 0;
}