Forem: Ifeoluwa Adewunmi

Why are Data Structures and Algorithms so Important?

Ifeoluwa Adewunmi — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:31:48 +0000

I often tell those I mentor that it is better you understand what you are doing than jump into doing what you are yet to understand – this would save you time, and resources, and make you more productive with less error-prone. As much that to learn how to code is not far-fetched on the internet but going about writing codes without a profound knowledge of data structures and algorithms will only present you as a monkey coder.

As computer scientists, software engineers or web developers, beyond the hype on the internet and the juicy salary, the primary thing expected of us is to perform operations on data, and basically, we perform the following three steps:

Take some input
Process the input data
Give the input back as output.

The input can be in any form, for example, while searching for directions on google maps, you give the starting point and the destination as input to Google maps, while logging in to your social media account (like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc) you are to provide your email and password as input and so on.
Similarly, in the third step, the computer application gives us output in some form or the other.

To make this process efficient, we need to optimise all three steps. As you can guess, the most we can optimise is the 2nd step, which is where we have Data structures and algorithms.
Data structures refer to the way we organise information on our computers. With slight thinking, you can guess that the way we organise information can have a lot of impact on performance.

Take, for example, a library. Suppose, you want to have a book on Data Structure and/or Algorithm from a public library, to do that you have to first go to the computer science section, and then search the Data Structure and Algorithm (DSA) section. If these books are not organised in this manner and just distributed randomly then it will be a cumbersome process to find a book on Data Structure and Algorithm.
This is the way a librarian organises his books (Data) into a particular form (Data Structure) to efficiently perform a task like finding a book on What is Data Structure and/or What is Algorithm (Algorithm).

In this manner, we computer scientist process and look for the best way to organise the data we have, so it can be better processed based on the input provided.

I hope this is helpful! You can read my previous guides on Data Structure and Algorithm (DSA)

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What Is Data Structure (Data Structure explained for absolute beginners)

Ifeoluwa Adewunmi — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 21:00:56 +0000

The first time I heard the word Data structure, I thought I would need special abilities to comprehend it, but I was wrong because just like Algorithms exist in real life beyond programming, so do they.

Hello friends, I am Ifeoluwa Adewunmi, and in this guide, I will discuss the term Data structure by explaining the following:

Data structure in Real World
Data structure in Computer Science

WHAT IS DATA STRUCTURE IN REAL-WORLD

A data structure is a way of arranging or organising items so that operations involving these items can be done fast and efficiently. These operations could be in the form of storing and retrieving items.

For example, let me share how my friend KIKI solved a homemade problem using a data structure. KIKI, apart from being a baker, also loves to attend parties (OWAMBE) because of her job as an event planner.

However, KIKI’s love for parties makes her buy more dresses (ASO-EBI), and this leads to a homemade problem; her wardrobe increased massively with different kinds of expensive dresses (ASO-EBI) and picking an outfit for a specific event becomes daunting, and this makes KIKI get to events behind schedule.

How was this solved using a Data Structure?

KIKI thought of two approaches to solve the scattered arrangements of dresses in her wardrobe, which are:

Arrangement of her dresses by colours (organising dresses with the same colour in the same section) in the wardrobe.
Arrangement of her dresses by fabric type (organising dresses with the same fabric quality, style and manufacturer in the same section) in the wardrobe

After soliloquising for a few minutes, she decided to go with the first approach because the events she attends only request guests to appear in a dress code (colour) and do not impose the fabric type or design they must put on.

In the KIKI’s Wardrobe example:

The data structure would be the neat arrangements of dresses in the wardrobe by colours,
The items it contains are the expensive party wears (ASO-EBI)
The operation would be selecting an outfit for a specific event from her wardrobe.

WHAT IS DATA STRUCTURE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

In computer science, software and written programmes rely on data in one way or the other, and we don’t want these data to be scattered all across the memory as KIKI’s dress was scattered in her wardrobe but neatly arranged in the memory for easy accessibility. How do we archive this neat arrangement of data in the computer memory? Here is where DATA STRUCTURE comes in.

A Data Structure is a way data are neatly represented in the computer memory so it can be used efficiently. By efficiently, I mean that computer operations are performed using as few resources in terms of execution time and memory. Data structures are the implementation of abstract data types in a concrete and physical setting. They do this by using algorithms.

There are several kinds of data structures such as; Array, Linked List, Stack, Queue, Hash Table, Tree, Graph etc. However, the scope of this guide wouldn’t explain any types of Data Structures, but subsequently, I will explain them one after the other. So, kindly hit the follow button to get notified when I release a guide in the future.

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If you find this guide educative, kindly give this guide a like and share your opinion in the comments below, share my guide with your community/social media by adding the article's URL to the feed.

By adding my article, I can share my insights and knowledge with other tech enthusiasts and contribute to your passionate community.

See you in the next one! Cheers✨

What Is An Algorithm (Algorithm explained for absolute beginners)

Ifeoluwa Adewunmi — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 10:13:07 +0000

You may have heard the word algorithm, whether from your techie friends, on YouTube or anywhere else but it sounds so ambiguous for you to grasp. In this guide, I will explain to you what an algorithm is in the Real World, Mathematics, and Computer Science World. Without further ado, let’s dive into it.

This guide attempts to demystify an algorithm by explaining the following:

Algorithm in Real World
Algorithm in Mathematics
Algorithm in Computer Science

WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM IN THE REAL WORLD

Algorithms are everywhere and present in our daily activities. Although they have a more significant presence in math and computer science, they exist in other places, too.

For instance, on a faithful Sunday afternoon, I asked my friend KIKI a 5-star baker and a tutor, to teach me how to bake a chocolate cake. She disagreed initially, but after teasing her with sweet words, she picked up a book and a pen to list out the ingredients needed and the procedures to use the listed ingredients efficiently so that I wouldn’t end up baking a burnt offering instead of a chocolate cake. This list and steps written by KIKI can also be said to be a recipe.

A recipe is like an algorithm in that it’s some steps (written on a box or included in a book) that achieve a specific task. In the scenario I was making earlier, the specific task is to bake a chocolate cake. To achieve that, I need to follow the steps written (algorithm) by my friend KIKI. Do you get a general idea already?

WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM IN MATHEMATICS

An algorithm in mathematics is a procedure or a description of a set of steps used to solve a mathematical computation. Algorithms are used in many STEM fields, but the most common example is a step-by-step procedure used in long divisions.

The process of solving a mathematical problem such as, “What is 73 divided by 3” could be achieved by doing the following algorithm:

How many times does 3 go into 7?
The answer is 2
How many are left over? 1
Put the 1(ten) in front of the 3.
How many times does 3 go into 13?
The answer is 4, with a remainder of one.
And of course, the answer is 24 with a remainder of 1

An algorithm in math is not that different from an algorithm in computer science or app development. Both have the same definition, description, and significance.

Wait, before explaining what an algorithm in computer science is to you, could you, give this article a like and kindly hit the follow button, please?

WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

In Computer Science, an algorithm is when you tell your computer what to do and also give it precise instructions on how to do it.

Let us illustrate a search example similar to what you do on google search:

You type in keywords
Clicks the search button in expectation of results.
The computer takes in your search request.
Uses a search algorithm implemented to process the given keywords against the database or data warehouse
Then returns information on your searched keywords.

In computer science, there are various types of search algorithms available and the way they are used decides the performance and efficiency of the data available.

Explaining types of search algorithms is beyond the scope of this guide, however, you can read my guide on:

Google Search Algorithm
Types of Search Algorithms

Having read through my explanation of an Algorithm above, you will find out that Algorithm is having more precise and descriptive instructions for achieving any given task. I believe that you now have a clearer understanding of what an algorithm is. Please, do not forget to like, comment and share. Thank you for reading through, see you in the next one.

How To Solve Laravel 8 API Response that is returning welcome page instead of JSON

Ifeoluwa Adewunmi — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 15:06:58 +0000

I created a dribble clone using Laravel 8 and Nuxt.js. Since I won't be using the web route so I decided to create a global JsonRequestMiddleware that accepts headers as application/json. This write-up aims to show you how I implemented that step by step. Happy reading
Step 1: create a new middleware

php artisan make:middleware JsonRequestMiddleware

Step 2: Copy this code and place it inside the JsonRequestMiddleware at the handle method before 'return $next($request);'

$request->headers->set("Accept", "application/json");

Your end result should look like this:

public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
{
    $request->headers->set("Accept", "application/json");
    return $next($request);
}

Step 3: Go to App\Http\Kernel.php file and add the code below at global HTTP middleware stack.

protected $middleware = [
    \App\Http\Middleware\JsonRequestMiddleware::class,
    // Other Middleware::class comes after...
];

Step 4: clear the application config cache and dump-autoload

php artisan config:cache or composer dump-autoload

you can share with me if you have got a better way of achieving this. I hope this is helpful. Thanks.