Linked List, Tree, etc is useful now a day?

[Ajay Parmar]

Dear Friends,

I like to know your view about Linked List, Tree, Data Structure etc programming style. I think Linked List, Tree etc is useful for creating Data Base like programs. Now a day one can use nice Data Base program like SQL Server, Oracle with programming very easily.

So my question is Now a day doing Linked List, Tree and Data Structure type programming is useful or not?

If useful then what way?

If any person learning programming then to learn Linked List, Tree, Data Structure is most important points or if he or she didn't know that programming will do?

If any person create program using VC# or Java then Linked List, Tree, Data Structure is how much useful?

Please give me your views.

Thank you.

[darwen]

Sounds like a homework question to be, but I'll answer it regardless.

If any person create program using VC# or Java then Linked List, Tree, Data Structure is how much useful

The behaviour of standard data structures is something everyone should know in any language, not just C#.

In order to create memory and speed performant programs knowledge of what the standard data structures do and which one to use is essential. When should you use an array, a List, a SortedList or a Dictionary ? The use case will determine which will perform the best and simplest in any given context but to choose the correct one requires you to know the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Database apps are external applications to the apps you write yourself - the apps yourself will always require data structures. Databases are most often (and most simply) used to serialize data - i.e. save it for retrieval later. Client applications (unless they're something like a website) will usually cache the data locally for efficient data retrieval. By this I mean they'll fetch the data and store it in an in-process data structure.

Also bear in mind not all applications need to access a database. For instance games - they don't have a requirement for you to have access to an SQL server to run.

This is a very quick answer but I think you get the idea.

Darwen.

[Ajay Parmar]

Thank you very much darwen,

I get much for your reply but my mean question is learning Linked List, Tree etc in any language is very important subject?

That mean each student must learn those topics in any language in depth or if someone skip, then it is ok?

Why i am asking because i am teaching Linked List, Tree etc topics in Turbo C to the student because in India all collages teach those topics. And i think that those topics are not that much useful in programming now a day.

So i am right or i must teach all the topics in depth in C/C++/C# and Java?

[darwen]

I think it is essential for any programmer to know standard data structures nomatter which language they use.

They should also know basic algorithms like search algorithms.

Darwen

[Ajay Parmar]

Thank you darwen,

I am new to programming so may be my questions annoy you but can you please give me any example of application where you can use data structures, other then Database like programming?

How data structures useful in real life and game etc. programming?

[darwen]

Just about any application will use data structures. Try writing one without them !

Darwen.

[DataMiser]

Most applications need to work with data in order to be in any way useful. This data will normally make use of some kind of data structure. For example a game may need to store player info stuff like Name, Level, health, credits, and so on. These data items would normally be parts of a Player Data structure, in a multiplayer game there could be several instances of this player structure in use. There may also be a structure very much like this for monsters or villians in the game of which there could be many. Both of these would likely share some items in common which may be yet another structure.

A linked list or tree would not be as heavily used but what is the programmer to do when they have a need for this and find that it was skipped over?

My question would be if you are new to programming and do not know the usage and value of these items why are you teaching? Sounds like you should be a student instead.

[HanneSThEGreaT]

Why i am asking because i am teaching Linked List, Tree etc topics in Turbo C to the student because in India all collages teach those topics. And i think that those topics are not that much useful in programming now a day.

So i am right or i must teach all the topics in depth in C/C++/C# and Java?

No offense, but your approach seems to be a tad shorts sighted. I am a Programming teacher myself, and I cover each and every topic that I am supposed to. Why? Well, the students needs to know how things work. Students need to know the right way as well as the wrong way to do things. If they cannot distinguish between the two, they will suffer eventually.

You must remember, students are there to study ( most of them at least ), they will take your word as their commandments and your books as their bibles. Sorry for the analogy, but hopefully you get the picture of how important your job really is! It is not just about reading the book and doing the book's examples, it is so much more! You have to realise it. So, if I were you, I would search through Google for the topics you are concerned with, do research etc. So that you can teach your students properly.

[Mutant_Fruit]

To be honest, if you're asking "Why are we teaching students about fundamental datastructures which have known performance/memory usage tradeoffs", you are not qualified to be a teacher.

Linked lists and tree like structures are incredibly important. Without tree like structures, games would be insanely slow.

[nuzzle]

I am new to programming

Doubleposted here,

http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=519588

In that thread you claim to be teaching programming and here you're new to programming. That's quite a difference isn't it. So what's the deal really?

[TheGreatCthulhu]

Actually, in this thread, he claims both to be teaching programming and to be new to programming; unfortunately, it might even be true...

What can I say - if you're new to programming, then don't you think that you're not exactly in the position to determine what is the best way to teach it?

And, what kind of school/class is this? Are those kids educated to become programmers, or this is some general informatics course, still stuck waiting for the educational reform to kick in and replace "The Basics of Turbo Pascal" taught by reclassified math teachers with "How to Use Everyday Businesses Applications You Kids Might Actually Need One Day" (preferably not taught by reclassified math teachers... well, unless it's Mathcad...)?
All this might sound weird to some of you, but I'm not making this up...

[Ajay Parmar]

Thank you very much for replying to my post, but some of my friends misunderstood me. When I am saying I am teaching programming then I mean that I know programming and can teach very well. I know and can do programming for Linked List and Data Structure etc. and when I say I am new to programming that mean that I am new to real world programming that mean I am not in full fledge commercial programming.

I am not trying to remove some points from teaching but I only know the use of Linked List and Data Structure as storing, retrieving and searching name, address, number etc. And I am totally unaware about game programming use of Data Structure as my friend DataMiser explain in his C-sharp post section.

Anyway thank you very much for your time, now I understood that teaching Linked List, Data Structure, etc. in Turbo C programming is very useful and using Data Base software is not an alternative to it.

Earlier I think that Linked List, Data Structure is useful only for creating Data Base like program. As earlier we write almost 300 lines of Turbo C program to find tomorrows date with leap year setting but now a day one can use Calendar class object with 3, 4 lines of code and output are same. That way I try to use Data Base program instead of Linked List or Data Structure but that is my misunderstanding. So thank you very much for correcting me.

Especially thanks to HanneSThEGreaT for creating bridge between my two posts. I posted in C-sharp and Java both section because I think I have to reach to the both programmer and not only C-sharp or not only Java.
Thank you.

[nuzzle]

As earlier we write almost 300 lines of Turbo C program to find tomorrows date with leap year setting but now a day one can use Calendar class object with 3, 4 lines of code and output are same. That way I try to use Data Base program instead of Linked List or Data Structure but that is my misunderstanding. So thank you very much for correcting me.

That's not an incorrect observation. Java and C# come with huge standard libraries designed to make programming easier and more efficient. But that doesn't mean a basic knowledge of algorithms & data structures has become unimportant or redundant. On the contrary. The more powerful the tools the more damage you can you inflict if you use them incorrectly and the more important it becomes to know how they work.

This is something of an irony because those languages were designed specifically to be "safe" from programmer errors. And they are, but at the same time they're so powerful that ignorant programmers can easily wreck havoc big time on a much grander scale than before.

Algorithms & data structures are the very fabric of programming. The more you know the better a programmer you become regardless of whether you make your own or use something readymade from a library. That's why it's as important as ever they get properly taught to budding programmers.

[TheGreatCthulhu]

Yeah - it is important for them to understand the inner workings in general (even if they don't know how exactly are the specific libraries they use implemented under the hood), because otherwise they won't realize what are the differences between the various options provided by an API (and will have a hard time understanding the descriptions in the accompanying documentation), much less determine whether they should use one option or the other in a given situation.