Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford / 2016 / Imperative programming / 5 / c

An abstract data type specifies a set of abstract values and the operations on them, including their observable behavior, independently of their concrete representation. Its operation signatures say what can be requested; its laws or preconditions and postconditions say what those requests mean.

For example a stack can be specified by an empty value, push, pop, and isEmpty, with pop(push(x,s)) returning x and leaving s. A linked list and an array can implement the same abstract data type if clients observe the same specified behavior. Encapsulation hides the representation, while a representation invariant describes which internal states are valid and an abstraction function explains which abstract value each valid internal state represents. An abstract class is a language mechanism; it is not by itself a full abstract data type specification.