Write short notes on the following: Data structure and its characteristics

A data structure is a particular way of storing and organizing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently. Different kinds of data structures are suited to different kinds of applications, and some are highly specialized to specific tasks. For example, B-trees are particularly well-suited for implementation of databases, while compiler implementations usually use hash tables to look up identifiers. In simple words, the term data structure refers to a scheme for organizing related pieces of information. The basic types of data structures include: files, lists, arrays, records, trees, tables. Each of these basic structures has many variations and allows different operations to be performed on the data. Characteristics of Data Structure: It contains data items that can be elementary item, group item or another data structure. It has a set of operations that can be performed on data items. Such as searching, insertion etc. It describes the rules of how the data items are related to each other.