c-data-structures

Dynamic arrays in C require allocating memory with malloc(), tracking capacity and size, and freeing with free(). This Skill covers implementing resizable arrays that grow when needed, with insertion, iteration, and proper deallocation to prevent memory leaks.

Memory safety requires pairing every malloc() with free(), avoiding pointer reuse after deallocation, and performing boundary checks. This Skill teaches explicit allocation/deallocation patterns and safe pointer handling practices across arrays, structs, and linked lists.

Linked lists and trees use struct nodes with pointers to build dynamic structures. This Skill demonstrates node creation, traversal patterns, and memory management for both structures, including safe pointer dereferencing and cleanup.

Structs group related data of different types into a single unit, while arrays store homogeneous elements sequentially. This Skill covers modeling problems with structs and combining them with arrays and pointers for flexible, memory-efficient designs.

Hash tables map keys to values with collision resolution strategies like chaining or open addressing. This Skill includes hash table implementation with memory-conscious designs and trade-offs between lookup speed and space usage.

Each structure—arrays, linked lists, trees, hash tables—offers different performance profiles for insertion, deletion, and search. This Skill analyzes complexity trade-offs and guides selection based on your project's access patterns and constraints.