Abstract data type
data types described in terms of the operations they support—their interface—rather than how they are implemented.
An ADT consists of two components: an interface and an implementation. Users of an ADT are aware of the interface, but not of the implementation.
A third component, a driver, is developed by the user of an ADT, although the developer usually also creates a test driver when writing the ADT.
When done correctly, a totally different implementation could be used without any need to modify existing code using the ADT.
If the ADT is implemented so that instances of the ADT can be created, it is called a First Class ADT. This approach provides a more general ADT, and makes it easier to reuse the ADT on other projects.
For example, the interface for a first class ADT of a programming languages, such as Ada and Modula-2, have explicit support for abstract data types. Object-oriented languages carry this a step further by adding inheritance and polymorphism to ADTs to get "objects".
ADT can also mean:
