This document introduces key concepts related to data structures. It defines data as numbers, alphabets and symbols that represent information. Data can be atomic like integers or composite like dates with multiple parts. Data types refer to the kind of data variables can hold, like integers or characters. Abstract data types are collections of data and operations that can manipulate the data, like structures in C. Data objects store values in a program. Data structures organize data so items can be stored and retrieved using a fixed technique, like arrays. Data structures can be primitive types available in languages or non-primitive types derived from primitive ones. They can also be linear, non-linear, static with memory allocated at load time, or dynamic with memory allocated during execution
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