Set (computer science)

In computer science, the set is a collection of certain values without any particular order. It corresponds with the mathematical concept of set, but with the restriction that it has to be finite. Aside from the order, it is the same as the list.

The set was first introduced by Pascal and nowadays many programming languages support it in the form of language specification or in a standard library.

Java programming language offers Set interface to support sets. In C++, STL provides set classeses.

Sets can be implemented using various data structures. Practical ways include arrays, hash tables and any sort of tree structure.

ASCII code can be considered a set of 128 (or 256) characters.

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See also: Datatype, Data structure, Character set, Set