CS 70

What's an Implementation?

The implementation of a data structure provides the mechanisms that create and maintain the structures given by the encoding and the interface.

In C++, the implementation of a data structure is primarily expressed in the member-function definitions for its class.

Just as there can be multiple valid (and quite different) encodings for a given interface, there can be multiple valid ways to implement the functionality a particular encoding requires. Some approaches may be more or less efficient or more or less elegant, but there are almost always multiple paths to the same place.

  • Duck speaking

    I think we have lots of experience making implementations.

  • LHS Cow speaking

    Indeed you do!

What's the different between an interface and an implementation?

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