[Gambas-user] Data Structures like C++

[Benoît Minisini]

Le 21/05/2012 21:51, Demosthenes Koptsis a écrit :
> Basic languages have simple data structures like vars and arrays but
> other languages
> like c++ with the help of pointers can have advanced data structures
> like containers etc...
>
> see a full list here
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_structures
>
> i wonder if such data structures can be implemented with gambas with
> pointers and if such an action have any mean for real life
> applications?
>
> Is it possible to have such data structures in gambas?
> How about some of these to be part of the core libraries?

Some data structures are missing, but not so many as you may think at 
first sight.

If they are implemented, I don't think they will go inside the 
interpreter, to keep its size small (it is already too big for my 
tastes), but in an extern component.

* Map/Associative array/Dictionary
* Hash

Use a Collection in both case. If the key is not a string, you must find 
a way to identify your key with a unique string.

* Multimap

Use a Collection whose values are arrays.

* List

Use an array. Since CPU have now one, two, three... memory caches, 
arrays as almost always faster than linked lists.

* Set

One could use a Collection to emulate it: by transforming a value into a 
string key, we can assume that the value belongs to the set if the 
collection has something associated with the key.

But it would be better to add a Set native class with a native 
implementation (in C. Stop with C++!).

* Multiset

Same remarks (the value is associated to its number of occurence in the 
collection).

* Priority queue

Is it worth having a native implementation for that? I don't think so. A 
implementation in Gambas should be enough.

* Queue
* Deque
* Stack

Use an Array. The Push() and Pop() methods can help.

* String

We have strings of characters. Is something else really needed?

* Tree
* Graph

Native implementation of that would be interesting.

Any volunteer? :-)

-- 
Benoît Minisini