[Year 12 SofDev] VCAA sample questions and examiniation advicerevisited

[Poultney, Gordon A]

The wording of the question is a bit vague ...but gift horses and all...
 
Given you can set up arrays (and lists ) of objects or self- declared type structures, all 3 data structures can deal with multiple data types. So i guess the answer is they all deal with: string, char, integer, floats, date, boolean etc. Not very useful!
 
"the way data is organised" Records are pretty straight forward so i would have a try a quick discussion of array vs linked list.
 
Linked list is dynamic in that it can shrink/grow with needs of program (within memeory limits). Each item in the list conatins a link  to the previous and next item. Access thererfore is sequential so may be too slow for certain applications.
 
Arrays are declared in code and have less flexibiltiy for insertion/deletion of data. Each item has a unique index value that is used to access a member of the array. Random access is possible via index value.
 
cheers
                 gordon
 
----------------
Gordon Poultney
Horsham College

________________________________

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Matheson, Heath A
Sent: Mon 9/11/09 14:08
To: sofdev at edulists.com.au
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] VCAA sample questions and examiniation advicerevisited



Heya all,

 

Some of my students are going through the sample questions posted back in April 07 on the SD VCAA website.  I looked back at the archives (Apr 07) and found Mark and Gordon's multi choice answers which I agreed with but I'm trying to work out what is expected from Question 2 of section B. 

 

It states:  Three simple types of data structure are arrays, records and linked lists.

For each of these three data structures, identify the types of data that they deal with and the way the data is organised. (6 marks)

 

Is "types of data" different from "data types"? 

 

My thoughts are linked lists are sequential and ordered while arrays can have random access, is this organisation?

An array can only hold one data type while a record can have several different data types.

 

I would love some help on this one. 

Three sleeps til I can clear the mess of exam papers off my desk!

Cheers! 

 

Heath Matheson

Mount Beauty Secondary College

Ph (03) 5754 4005

 

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