Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v5 - Grade 12

Lesson Video

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Performance objectives

• Implement and manipulate linked lists.
• Understand and apply binary search trees (BSTs).
• Implement basic file handling operations.
• Compare different file access methods.
• Explain and use serialization and deserialization.

Lesson summary

This week, we delve deeper into complex data structures and files, building upon the foundational knowledge you gained previously. This is crucial for developing robust and efficient software solutions, especially when dealing with large datasets, common in various South African contexts, from managing census data to tracking agricultural yields or analysing economic trends. Mastering these concepts allows you to create applications that can store, process, and retrieve information effectively, enabling data-driven decision-making in our country.

Lesson notes

Linked Lists A linked list is a linear data structure where elements are not stored in contiguous memory locations. Each element (called a node) contains data and a pointer (or reference) to the next node in the sequence. The last node's pointer typically points to NUL

L. This differs from arrays, where elements are stored contiguously.

Advantages of Linked Lists: Dynamic Size: Linked lists can grow or shrink in size dynamically at runtime, as memory is allocated and deallocated as needed.

Efficient Insertion/Deletion: Inserting or deleting elements in the middle of a linked list is more efficient than in an array, as it only requires updating the pointers of neighboring nodes, not shifting elements.

Disadvantages of Linked Lists: Random Access Not Allowed: Accessing an element in a linked list requires traversing the list from the head node, making random access (e.g., accessing the 5th element directly) inefficient.

Extra Memory Space: Each node requires extra memory space to store the pointer to the next node.

Types of Linked Lists: Singly Linked List: Each node points only to the next node.

Doubly Linked List: Each node points to both the next and previous nodes. This allows for efficient traversal in both directions.

Circular Linked List: The last node points back to the first node, forming a circle.