Out for Shopping: Understanding Linear Data Structures

This lesson is designed for students just learning about data structures. It teaches them by relating the topic to real life situations and implementing it in many scenarios where there is a need for data storage. Here the familiar event of shopping is used to illustrate the several examples of linear data structures under discussion. This real life experience of shopping illuminates many problems where data needs to be stored in different containers. The lesson will help programming students have a basic understanding of linear data structures and how to decide which structure will be more appropriate for a particular problem. Classroom activities will involve students in the implementation of lists, stacks and queues and will enable them to discover the advantages and disadvantages of each.