Question

By using the same _________ for multiple arrays, you can build relationships between the data stored in the arrays. These arrays are referred to as parallel arrays.

Short answer

Based on the information provided above, briefly explain the concept of parallel arrays and how they build relationships between multiple arrays using the same index.

Step-by-step solution

Understanding Parallel Arrays

Parallel arrays are multiple arrays that store related data, where each array represents a different attribute of the data, and the corresponding elements in each array are related through the same index. In other words, the index represents a relationship between the elements of different arrays. Parallel arrays can be used to efficiently store and process data when it is organized by attributes.

Setting up an Example

Let's set up an example to demonstrate the concept of parallel arrays. Suppose we want to store information about four students: their names, ages, and grades in a math exam. The information is as follows: 1. Name: Alice, Age: 17, Grade: 92 2. Name: Bob, Age: 18, Grade: 85 3. Name: Carol, Age: 17, Grade: 97 4. Name: Dave, Age: 18, Grade: 88 We can use parallel arrays to store this information.

Create the parallel arrays

We will create three parallel arrays, one for each attribute: names, ages, and grades. We will use the same index to store related data for each student. names = ["Alice", "Bob", "Carol", "Dave"] ages = [17, 18, 17, 18] grades = [92, 85, 97, 88] Notice that the information for the first student, Alice, is stored at index 0 in each array, and so on. This is how parallel arrays are set up.

Accessing the data using index

To access the data in parallel arrays, we can use the index to retrieve related information from each array. For example, if we want to get the age and grade for the student named "Carol", we first find the index where "Carol" is located in the 'names' array. index = names.index("Carol") Now we can use this index to access Carol's age and grade. age = ages[index] grade = grades[index] In this case, we have retrieved Carol's age (17) and grade (97) using the index relationship.

Summary

To summarize, parallel arrays build relationships between data stored in multiple arrays by using the same index for related elements. We have demonstrated this concept using an example of student information, where the name, age, and grade of each student were stored in parallel arrays.