What is data structure?

Data Structure: 

Data structure means how the data is organized in memory. There different kind of data structures. Some are used to store the data of same type and some for different types of data. Different types of data structures help different types of operations of data structures too. Data structure is a particular way of storing and organizing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently.

The choice of a particular model depends on two considerations; First, it must be rich enough in structure to mirror the actual relationships of the data in the real world and the other is, the structure should be simple enough so that one can efficiently process the data when necessary.