List Processing

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What Does List Processing Mean?

List processing is a list of programming codes, including abstract data structure, used to calculate specified variables in a certain order. A value may repeat more than once.

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Inspection and enumeration of static list structures are the only allowed list processing operations, while item insertion, replacement and deletion operations are only allowed within dynamic lists processing operations.

Techopedia Explains List Processing

Each finite sequence of variables, each with a certain mathematical formula, is an instance of the list and it is called a tuple.

The terms item, entry and element typically refer to the same thing – an instance of a value within the list. When the values occur repeatedly, each occurrence is considered an independent entity.

Abstract lists such as linked lists are implemented using many concrete data structures, each called a list.

List data type is supported within many programming languages, while specific syntax and semantics are used for those lists and their operations. Commas, semicolons and space separations are used to construct a list and distinguish its elements.

Indexing and slicing are possible operations, which may be carried on list types in some languages.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.