abstract data type

1 definition found

abstract data type - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  abstract data type
  ADT
  
     <programming> (ADT) A kind of data abstraction where a
     type's internal form is hidden behind a set of access functions
     .  Values of the type are created and inspected only
     by calls to the access functions.  This allows the
     implementation of the type to be changed without requiring any
     changes outside the module in which it is defined.
  
     Objects and ADTs are both forms of data abstraction, but
     objects are not ADTs.  Objects use procedural abstraction
     (methods), not type abstraction.
  
     A classic example of an ADT is a stack data type for which
     functions might be provided to create an empty stack, to
     push values onto a stack and to pop values from a stack.
  
     Reynolds paper (http://cis.upenn.edu/~gunter/publications/documents/taoop94.html)
     .
  
     Cook paper "OOP vs ADTs" (http://wcook.org/papers/OOPvsADT/CookOOPvsADT90.pdf)
     .
  
     (2003-07-03)