Data Structures in Python: A Brief Introduction!

Being a python programmer, are you tired of slow and inefficient code? Unlock the secret to lightning-fast algorithms with these mind-blowing data structures in python!

Data plays a very important role in our day-to-day life, especially in an era where we are surrounded more by electronic devices than by humans.

And all these devices and gadgets we use, generate such huge data we can’t think of.

From social media to the internet of things, and from web browsing to communication, we humans create billions of megabytes of data every day.

In recent research, it was concluded that 1.145 trillion megabytes of data are created every day.

That’s insane and with such an increasing amount of data, there rises the biggest problem in the history of technology.

The problem of storing this huge data and extracting useful information out of it.

What are data structures in python?

To tackle this problem, the programming languages like python have some data structures.

Data structures are the structures that we can use to store and manipulate data.

Data structures in python help us to address this huge data. Using these data structures, we can store this data conveniently, and we can manipulate and use this data when needed.

In a nutshell, data structures are ways of organizing and storing data in a computer program or system so that it can be accessed, retrieved, and manipulated efficiently.

Think of them as containers that hold data and allow you to perform operations on that data.

You can use different types of data structures depending on the specific problem that you want to solve or the outcome that you want to achieve.

By using these data structures, you can write more efficient code and eventually, better algorithms that will lead you to build more reliable software systems.

Now, let’s discuss the different types of data structures in python.

Types of data structures in python

In Python, there are two types of data structures.

1. Built-in data structures
2. User-defined data structures

Data Structures in python are divided into two types depending on the way each data structure works and therefore the customizations that you can make.

Built-in data structures

Python gives you a handful of built-in data structures.

Certainly, these data structures are enough for you anyone who is just starting out.

These data structures include:

• List
• Dictionary
• Tuple
• Set

These are the built-in data structures that enable you to store and manipulate data right out of the box.

Later we will cover these built-in data types individually.

User-defined data structure

While python gives you a bunch of built-in data types but these data structures are sometimes not enough.

And you need a custom data structure designed specially to address a specific requirement.

Python gives the flexibility to define custom data structures. These data structures are:

• Stack
• Queue
• Tree
• Linked List
• Graph
• Hash Map

In the next tutorial, you will know about list data structure in detail.

How you can implement list data structure in python and how you can perform multiple operations on the list.