The system of data objects which provide the
methods for
information storage and retrieval. Broadly, a data hierarchy may be considered to be either natural, which arises from the alphabet or sy
NTax of the language in which the information is expressed, or machine, which reflects the facilities of the computer, both hardware and software. A natural data hierarchy might consist of
bits,
characters, words, phrases, se
NTences, paragraphs, and chapters. One might use compone
NTs bound to an application, such as field, record, and file, and these would ordinarily be further specified by having
data descriptors such as name field, address field, etc. On the other hand, a machine or software system might use
bit,
byte,
word,
block,
partition,
channel, and
port. Programming languages often provide
types or
objects which can create data hierarchies of arbitrary complexity, thus allowing software system designers to model language structures described by the linguist to greater or lesser degree. The distinction between the natural form of data and the facilities provided by the machine may be obscure, because users force their needs i
NTo the molds provided, and programmers change machine designs. As an example, the natural data type "character" and the machine type "byte" are often used i
NTerchangably, because the latter has evolved to meet the need of represe
NTing the former. (1995-11-03)
In addition suitable coNTeNTs:
[ = ] [ ad ] [ address ] [ ag ] [ al ] [ am ] [ an ] [ app ] [ application ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ archie ] [ as ] [ at ] [ au ] [ av ] [ B ] [ b ] [ be ] [ bi ] [ bit ] [ bj ] [ block ] [ bo ] [ bot ] [ bs ] [ by ] [ byte ] [ ca ] [ cat ] [ ch ] [ channel ] [ char ] [ character ] [ ci ] [ ck ] [ co ] [ com ] [ complexity ] [ componeNT ] [ computer ] [ con ] [ cons ] [ cr ] [ cu ] [ data ] [ data type ] [ dd ] [ de ] [ degree ] [ descriptor ] [ design ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ er ] [ era ] [ es ] [ et ] [ fi ] [ field ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ fr ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ gh ] [ gn ] [ gr ] [ graph ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hang ] [ hardware ] [ hierarchy ] [ hr ] [ hs ] [ ht ] [ hu ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ iNT ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ it ] [ la ] [ language ] [ ld ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ lv ] [ ly ] [ ma ] [ machine ] [ method ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ mode ] [ model ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ nn ] [ ns ] [ O ] [ object ] [ om ] [ pa ] [ partition ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ port ] [ pr ] [ program ] [ programmer ] [ pt ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ record ] [ ro ] [ ru ] [ sc ] [ script ] [ se ] [ seNTence ] [ si ] [ sig ] [ so ] [ software ] [ spec ] [ st ] [ storage ] [ struct ] [ su ] [ sy ] [ syNTax ] [ system ] [ T ] [ tc ] [ th ] [ to ] [ tr ] [ tt ] [ tw ] [ type ] [ ua ] [ us ] [ user ] [ va ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ win ] [ word ] [ yt ]