Relationship Between Databases and Complete Data Structures

Explain the relationship between databases and complete data structures

Data is a key element in most applications that programmers create. Whether it be to calculate the average test scores or to flag an operator when stock of an item is low, all elements revolve around data. Through internal structures including arrays or external structures such as databases, data needs to be staged someplace as a program manipulates the data within its memory. Data structures such as arrays provide a temporary means to store and sort data, however unlike a formal database, once the application ends, an array will lose the information contained within.

Explain the design and application of Arrays

Arrays are internal data structures that can provide a programmer with a means to store and organize large quantities of related data. Unlike standard variables however, an array can be multi-dimensional where it can have multiple rows and columns similar to a table. As an example, if a programmer was developing an application to tally students grades for each week of class, the initial array for the first test could contain both the students name and the students grade in an array similar to Test1(StudentName, StudentScore). If there were 10 students in the class, the array would only take up one line within the application, yet the array itself would contain twenty entries made up of ten student’s names and ten grades.

Data within an array can also be accessed and manipulated in similar manner as a physical database. This provides a means to search the array for specific data, such as all students with passing grades, edit data within the array, such as if a grading curve was added if majority of grades were lower than a certain grade, and even pass the data within the array to a physical database once manipulated.

Unlike a physical database however, the data will only remain within the array as long as the application is running. Once the application is terminated, the data...