Chapter 6

Structured Data
Types
Arrays
Records
 Definitions

• data type
– collection of data objects
– a set of predefined operations
• descriptor : collection of attributes for a
variable
• object : instance of a user-defined
(abstract data) type

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 Structured Data Types

• Built out of other types

– usually composed of multiple
elements.
– homogeneous : all elements have the
same type
– heterogeneous : elements have
different types

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 Structured Data Types

• Arrays
– aggregate of homogeneous data
elements indexed by its position
• Associative arrays
– unordered collection of key-value pairs
• Records
– heterogeneous aggregate of data
elements indexed by element name

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 Array Operations
• Whole array operations:
– assignment
– catenation
• Elemental operations same as those
of base type
• Indexing : mapping from indexes to
elements
array_name (index_value_list)  an
element

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 Array Design Issues
• What types are legal for subscripts?
• Are subscripting expressions in
element references range checked?
• When are subscript ranges bound?
• When does allocation take place?
• What is the maximum number of
subscripts?
• Can array objects be initialized?
• Are any kind of slices allowed?
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 Binding Time Choices
• Static: compile-time binding of subscript
range and memory
• Fixed stack-dynamic: subscript ranges
static, allocated at declaration time (C, C+
+)
• Stack-dynamic: run-time binding of
subscript range and memory
• Fixed heap-dynamic: storage binding is
dynamic but fixed after allocation (Java, C
and C++)
• Heap-dynamic: binding of subscript ranges
and storage allocation is dynamic (Perl and
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 Array Initialization
• Some language allow initialization at
the time of storage allocation
– C, C++, Java, C# example
int list [] = {4, 5, 7, 83}
– Character strings in C and C++
char name [] = “freddie”;
– Arrays of strings in C and C++
char *names [] = {“Bob”, “Jake”,
“Joe”};

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 Memory for arrays
• For 1D arrays, contiguous block of
memory with equal amount of space
for each element
• Two approaches for multi-
dimensional arrays
– Single block of contiguous memory for
all elements
• Arrays must be rectangular
• Address of array is starting memory
location
– Implement as arrays of arrays (Java)
• Jagged arrays are possible
• Array variable is a pointer (reference)
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 Implementation of Arrays

• Access function maps subscript expressions

to an address in the array
• Access function for single-dimensioned
arrays:
address(list[k]) = address (list[lower_bound])
+ ((k-lower_bound) * element_size)
• Two common ways to organize 2D arrays
– Row major order (by rows) – used in most
languages
– Column major order (by columns) – used in
Fortran
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 Contiguous Array Memory

• Row major (by

rows) or column
major order (by
columns) for 2D
array
• Access function
maps subscript
expressions to an
address in the
array
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 Row-major access formula
Location (a[I,j])
= address of a [row_lb,col_lb]
+ (((I - row_lb) * n) + (j - col_lb)) *element_size

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 Rectangular and Jagged
• A rectangularArrays
array is a multi-
dimensioned array in which all of
the rows have the same number of
elements and all columns have the
same number of elements
• A jagged matrix has rows with
varying number of elements
– Possible when multi-dimensioned
arrays actually appear as arrays of
arrays
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 Slices
• A slice is some substructure of an
array; it is nothing more than a
referencing mechanism
• Slices are only useful in languages
that have array operations
– Java allows row slices from 2D arrays
– Fortran 95
Integer, Dimension (10) :: Vector
Integer, Dimension (3, 3) :: Mat
Integer, Dimension (3, 3) :: Cube

Vector (3:6) is a four element array

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 Slices Examples in Fortran
95

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 Compile-Time Descriptors

Single-dimensioned array Multi-dimensional array

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 Associative Arrays
• An associative array is an unordered
collection of data elements that are
indexed by an equal number of
values called keys
– A hash table has the same behavior

• Design Issues:
1. What is the form of references to
elements?
2. Is the size static or dynamic?
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 Associative Arrays in Perl
• Names begin with %; literals are
delimited by parentheses
%hi_temps = ("Mon" => 77, "Tue"
=> 79, “Wed” => 65, …);
• Subscripting is done using braces
and keys
$hi_temps{"Wed"} = 83;
– Elements can be removed with delete
delete $hi_temps{"Tue"};

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 Record Types
• A possibly heterogeneous aggregate
of data elements
• Individual elements identified by field
name
• Like a class with no methods and only
public data.
• Design issues:
– What is the syntactic form of references
to the field?
– Are elliptical references allowed
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 Definition of Records in Ada
• Record structures are indicated in an
orthogonal way
type Emp_Rec_Type is record
First: String (1..20);
Mid: String (1..10);
Last: String (1..20);
Hourly_Rate: Float;
end record;
Emp_Rec: Emp_Rec_Type;
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 structs in C
• Define a record in C using the struct syntax
struct record {
int var1;
double var2;
}
• Structs can be copied
struct record r1, r2 // mem for 2
records
r1.var1 = 1; r1.var2 = 2.3;
r2 = r1; // copy data from r1 into r2
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 References to Records
• Most language use dot notation
Emp_Rec.Name
• Fully qualified references must include
all record names
• Elliptical references allow leaving out
record names as long as the reference
is unambiguous, for example in
COBOL
FIRST, FIRST OF EMP-NAME, and
FIRST of EMP-REC are elliptical
references to the employee’s first
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 Operations on Records
• Assignment is very common if the
types are identical
• Ada allows record comparison
• Ada records can be initialized with
aggregate literals
• COBOL provides MOVE
CORRESPONDING
– Copies a field of the source record to
the corresponding field in the target
record
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 Records vs. Arrays
• Straight forward and safe design
• Use records when collection of data
values is heterogeneous
• Access to array elements is much
slower than access to record fields
– subscripts are dynamic
– field names are static

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 Implementation of Record Type

Offset address relative to

the beginning of the records
is associated with each field

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 Union Types
• A type whose elements are allowed to
store different types at different times
during execution
• Fortran, C, and C++ provide free
union
– no language support for type checking
• Type checking requires extra element
– Type indicator called a discriminant
– Supported by Ada
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 Evaluation of Unions

• Potentially unsafe construct

– Do not allow type checking
• Java and C# do not support unions
– Reflective of growing concerns for
safety in programming language

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 Type Equivalence
• Consider the problem of two structured
types:
– Are two record types compatible if they
are structurally the same but use
different field names?
– Are two array types compatible if they
are the same except that the subscripts
are different?
(e.g. [1..10] and [0..9])
– Are two enumeration types compatible
if their components are spelled
differently?
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 Two approaches
• Name type compatibility : two variables have
compatible types if they are in either the same
declaration or in declarations that use the same
type name
– Easy to implement but highly restrictive:
– Subranges of integer types are not compatible with integer types
– Formal parameters must be the same type as their
corresponding actual parameters (Pascal)
• Structure type compatibility means that two
variables have compatible types if their types have
identical structures
– More flexible, but harder to implement

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