Representing Sequences by Arrays and Linked Lists

Abstract

Perhaps the world’s oldest data structures were the tablets in cuneiform script used more than 5000 years ago by custodians in Sumerian temples. These custodians kept lists of goods, and their quantities, owners, and buyers. The picture on the left shows an example. This was possibly the first application of written language. The operations performed on such lists have remained the same – adding entries, storing them for later, searching entries and changing them, going through a list to compile summaries, etc. The Peruvian quipu [225] that you see in the picture on the right served a similar purpose in the Inca empire, using knots in colored strings arranged sequentially on a master string. It is probably easier to maintain and use data on tablets than to use knotted string, but one would not want to haul stone tablets over Andean mountain trails. It is apparent that different representations make sense for the same kind of data.