Data Structures Overview

The data structures cluster of EiffelBase includes classes that cover a wide range of data structures classes for you to reuse in your systems. The cluster is divided into a number of subclusters. Each subcluster contains one or more deferred classes, which provide the general high-level abstractions; other classes in the cluster inherit from the deferred ones.

The highest-level class is CONTAINER, with the following heirs:

• COLLECTION, which describes containers through their access properties (defining how to access a container's items, for example through an index or according to a last-in, first-out policy).
• TRAVERSABLE, which considers their traversal properties, such as sequential or hierarchical.
• BOX, which describes their storage properties, such as being bounded or unbounded.

The documentation further discusses:

• The taxonomy of the abstract container structures.
• The list-based structures hierarchy.
• The dispenser-based structures hierarchy.
• The tree-based structures hierarchy.
• The set-based structures hierarchy.
• The table-based structures hierarchy.
• The iteration mechanisms.