Structured Data

Linear Array	Associative Array

In this chapter, we’re going to look at aspects of I/O that have to do with reading and writing files, with a focus on two key data structures:

• Tabular data, or data stored as a table consisting of rows and columns

• Data stored as name-value pairs, specifically in the JavaScript Object Notation (.json) format

We can connect these two types of data structures back to the concepts of linear and associative arrays covered previously in the course. A quick refresher:

• “In computer science, an array is a data structure consisting of a collection of elements (values or variables), each identified by at least one array index or key…The simplest type of data structure is a linear array, also called one-dimensional array” (Wikipedia, “Array (data structure)”)

• Associative arrays are “an abstract data type that stores a collection of (key, value) pairs, such that each possible key appears at most once in the collection” (Wikpedia, Associative Array)