IIT Bombay

Data Structures and Algorithms

Prof. Ajit A. Diwan
Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan
Prof. Deepak B. Phatak
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Bombay

Session: Sequences

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 1

Sequences
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• Sequence is the most fundamental data type in computer

science.
• Informally, a sequence is a collection of values of the same type,
placed in a particular order.
• The order in which the values occur is important.
• At the lowest level, all data in a computer is a sequence of bits.
• Need to represent arbitrary values using sequence of bits.

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 2

Definition of Sequences
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• Sequences are defined in a way very similar to numbers.

• All elements in a sequence are of the same type.
• A sequence of type T contains elements of type T.
• Different types of sequences depending on the type T.
• Sequence of bits, sequence of characters, sequence of
numbers, sequence of sequence of numbers etc.
• Many operations on sequences do not depend on T.

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 3

Definition of Sequences
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• For any type T, the empty sequence denoted Ф, is a

sequence of type T.
• If S is a sequence of type T, and x is an element of type T,
then push(x,S) is a sequence of type T.
• If a property holds for the empty sequence, and assuming it
holds for a sequence S, it holds for the sequence push(x,S)
for all values x of type T, then it holds for all sequences of
type T.

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 4

Examples
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• The sequence of bits 110101 is the value

push(1,push(1,push(0,push(1,push(0,push(1,Ф))))))
• The sequence of characters “abcdef “ is the value
push(a,push(b,push(c,push(d,push(e,push(f,Ф))))))
• The sequence containing only the number 10 is
push(10,Ф)
• Note that the sequence containing the value 10 is a different
value than the number 10 itself.

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 5

Operations on Sequences
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• Operations on sequences defined similarly to operations on

numbers.
• Define for the empty sequence.
• Assuming it is defined for a sequence S, define it for the
sequence push(x,S) for all values x of type T.
• This defines it for all sequences of type T.
• Many definitions do not depend on the type T.

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 6

Length
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• Informally, the length of a sequence is the number of

elements in it.
• Formally,
length(Ф) = 0
length(push(x,S)) = next(length(S)) for all values x

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 7

Concatenation
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• Concatenate sequences S1 and S2

concatenate(Ф, S2) = S2 for all sequences S2
concatenate (push(x,S1),S2)) = push(x,concatenate(S1,S2))
• Defines concatenate(S1,S2) for all sequences S1, S2 .

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 8

Reverse
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reverse(Ф) = Ф
reverse(push(x,S)) = concatenate(reverse(S),push(x,Ф))

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 9

 Exercises
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• Prove that for any two sequences S1, S2

length(concatenate(S1,S2)) = add(length(S1),length(S2))
• Prove that for any sequence S
reverse(reverse(S)) = S
• Prove that for any sequences S1,S2
reverse(concatenate(S1,S2)) = concatenate(reverse(S2), reverse(S1))

Ajit A. Diwan, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, and Deepak B. Phatak, IIT Bombay 10