Java™ How to Program, Seventh Edition

17.1. Introduction

In previous chapters, we studied fixed-size data structures such as one-dimensional and multidimensional arrays. This chapter introduces dynamic data structures that grow and shrink at execution time. Linked lists are collections of data items “linked up in a chain”—insertions and deletions can be made anywhere in a linked list. Stacks are important in compilers and operating systems; insertions and deletions are made only at one end of a stack—its top. Queues represent waiting lines; insertions are made at the back (also referred to as the tail) of a queue and deletions are made from the front (also referred to as the head). Binary trees facilitate high-speed searching and sorting of data, eliminating duplicate data items ...