Some geological data structures: arrays, networks, trees and forests

Geologists frequently record and process data as two-dimensional arrays. Use of this structure can help to make data collection more systematic, can help groups of workers to standardize their methods, and can provide an effective framework for computer analysis. Even data which cannot conveniently be recorded as a table, because of columns which are largely blank, or because most of the information is contained in a few rows, can be stored and analysed in the computer as an array. The array, however, is not always an appropriate structure in geology. For example, network and tree structure can more effectively represent some types of geological data, such as sequence of events in geological time, or a description in which general and detailed observations are combined. Choice of an appropriate data structure is important for recording data and for handling the data in a computer.