The Design of Dynamic Data Structures

Book excerpt: In numerous computer applications there is a need of storing large sets of objects in such a way that some questions about those objects can be answered efficiently. Data structures that store such sets of objects can be either static (built for a fixed set of objects) or dynamic (insertions of new objects and deletions of existing objects can be performed). Especially for more complex searching problems as they arise in such fields as computational geometry, database design and computer graphics, only static data structures are available. This book aims at remedying this lack of flexibility by providing a number of general techniques for turning static data structures for searching problems into dynamic structures. Although the approach is basically theoretical, the techniques offered are often practically applicable. The book is written in such a way that it is readable for those who have some elementary knowledge of data structures and algorithms. Although this monograph was first published in 1983, it is still unique as a general treatment of methods for constructing dynamic data structures.