Solidity In-Depth: Arrays, Mappings, and Advanced Structures from Coursera

Dive deep into Solidity's core data structures in this advanced course that builds on foundational knowledge of smart contract programming. Starting with constructors, you'll explore how to initialize smart contracts and manage state variables. The course transitions to mastering arrays in Solidity, covering crucial methods like push, pop, and length, as well as array manipulation techniques such as deletion and compacting arrays.

Next, you’ll learn to work with enums, structs, and mappings, essential components for creating more complex and efficient smart contracts. The course includes hands-on exercises to practice writing custom data types and associating values with mappings, and you'll solve real-world coding challenges along the way. Enums and structs are covered in detail, showing how to group data and define custom types, preparing you to write more structured and maintainable contracts.

Lastly, the course dives into nested mappings and the assignment of structs within mappings, a powerful tool for developing scalable and secure contracts. By the end, you will have mastered the tools needed to work with advanced Solidity data structures, laying a solid foundation for further exploration of blockchain development.

This course is designed for developers with a basic understanding of Solidity and blockchain development. Prerequisites include familiarity with smart contracts, basic Solidity syntax, and introductory data structures.

What's inside

Syllabus

Structures and Libraries in Solidity

In this module, we will delve into the essential aspects of advanced Solidity structures, including constructors, arrays, and mappings. You’ll gain practical experience through hands-on exercises with these data structures, learning to efficiently manage and store complex data in your smart contracts.

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Explores arrays, mappings, and structs, which are essential for managing complex data and building scalable smart contracts

Covers enums, which are useful for defining custom data types and improving the readability and maintainability of smart contracts

Requires familiarity with smart contracts, basic Solidity syntax, and introductory data structures, so beginners may need to acquire these skills first

Teaches array manipulation techniques such as deletion and compacting arrays, which are important for optimizing gas usage and contract performance

Includes hands-on exercises to practice writing custom data types and associating values with mappings, reinforcing practical skills

Reviews summary

Solidity data structures deep dive

According to learners, this course offers a focused deep dive (positive) into Solidity's essential data structures (neutral), especially arrays (neutral) and mappings (neutral). Many students found the coverage of advanced structures (neutral) like nested mappings to be particularly valuable. The included hands-on exercises (positive) and practical problems are highlighted as effective ways to solidify understanding and apply concepts. While most agree it builds well on basic Solidity knowledge (positive) and is suitable for intermediate learners, some reviews, particularly older ones, note that certain code examples may be outdated (warning) due to Solidity's rapid evolution. There's also a perceived gap for some wanting more depth on advanced usage, pitfalls, and security implications (warning) related to these structures. However, recent reviews are notably positive.

Focus is on data structures; other modules less key.

"Found the sections on conversions and special variables less relevant to the main topic."

"Didn't find the functions module particularly insightful compared to other resources."

Assumes solid basic Solidity knowledge.

"It definitely builds well on basic knowledge and is perfect for those looking to deepen their understanding."

"The course assumes you have a solid foundation, which is fair given the title."

"Would recommend for intermediate learners."

Opinions differ on the course's depth.

"Expected more depth on advanced usage and potential pitfalls. The 'advanced structures' part felt a bit basic at times..."

"Expected 'In-Depth' to mean more than just syntax examples. Not recommended."

"Some parts felt a little rushed, and I wish there was more focus on gas optimization considerations..."

Practical exercises reinforce understanding.

"The hands-on exercises were particularly helpful for understanding how to implement these structures effectively..."

"The practical problems helped solidify understanding."

"The exercises were useful. I learned best by doing the exercises provided in each section."

Covers Solidity arrays/mappings thoroughly.

"This course provided an excellent deep dive into Solidity arrays and mappings."

"Absolutely worth it if you want to master Solidity data structures."

"Goes into sufficient detail on arrays (push, pop, delete) and mappings."

"Very focused on the key data types needed for complex smart contracts. Arrays, mappings, structs - covered thoroughly."

Some examples may need updates.

"some code examples seem slightly outdated. Solidity evolves so fast..."

"Outdated code and unclear explanations made this frustrating."

"The section on arrays didn't work with the current compiler version I was using."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Solidity In-Depth: Arrays, Mappings, and Advanced Structures with these activities:

Review Solidity Basics

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Reinforce your understanding of fundamental Solidity concepts to ensure a solid foundation for the advanced topics covered in this course.

Browse courses on Blockchain Fundamentals

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Review basic data types and operators in Solidity.
Practice writing simple smart contracts.
Familiarize yourself with the Solidity documentation.

Solidity Programming Essentials

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Supplement your learning with this practical guide to Solidity programming.

View Solidity Programming Essentials on Amazon

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Read the chapters on arrays, mappings, and structs.
Complete the exercises and coding challenges.
Experiment with different code examples.

Implement Array and Mapping Exercises

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Solidify your understanding of arrays and mappings by completing targeted coding exercises that simulate real-world smart contract scenarios.

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Write functions to add, remove, and update elements in arrays.
Create mappings to store and retrieve data based on keys.
Test your implementations thoroughly with different inputs.

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Write a Blog Post on Solidity Data Structures

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Solidify your understanding of Solidity data structures by writing a blog post explaining their usage and best practices.

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Choose a specific data structure (e.g., arrays, mappings, structs).
Research and gather information on the chosen data structure.
Write a clear and concise explanation of the data structure.
Include code examples to illustrate its usage.

Mastering Ethereum

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Expand your understanding of Ethereum and smart contract development with this comprehensive guide.

View Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts... on Amazon

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Read the chapters on smart contracts and Solidity.
Explore the examples of dApps and their implementations.
Review the security considerations for smart contract development.

Build a Simple Voting Contract

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Apply your knowledge of arrays, mappings, and structs to build a practical smart contract that allows users to vote and tallies the results.

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Define a struct to represent a candidate.
Use an array to store the list of candidates.
Implement a mapping to track votes for each candidate.
Write functions to allow users to vote and view results.

Contribute to a Solidity Open Source Project

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Gain practical experience and contribute to the Solidity community by participating in an open-source project.

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Find an open-source Solidity project on GitHub.
Review the project's codebase and documentation.
Identify a bug or feature to work on.
Submit a pull request with your changes.

Career center

Learners who complete Solidity In-Depth: Arrays, Mappings, and Advanced Structures will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Smart Contract Developer

A smart contract developer designs, develops, tests, and deploys smart contracts on various blockchain platforms. This role requires a deep understanding of Solidity, especially its data structures such as arrays, mappings, enums, and structs, which are covered in detail in this course. Such structures are essential for building complex and efficient smart contracts. This course helps a smart contract developer to efficiently manage and store data, and construct custom data types. The hands-on exercises in this course allow a developer to solve real-world coding challenges. The course's exploration of nested mappings and struct assignment within mappings will directly help a contract developer to build scalable and secure applications. This course will be exceptionally useful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Smart Contract Developer

Solidity Developer

A Solidity developer focuses on writing and deploying smart contracts using the Solidity programming language. A considerable part of this work involves using and managing complex data structures, which this course directly addresses. This course helps a Solidity developer to effectively use arrays, mappings, enums and structs. This course addresses the essential skills for any Solidity developer such as initializing smart contracts, managing state variables, and handling complex data. The course covers nested mappings and how to assign structs within mappings which can be useful in writing robust contracts. Ultimately, this course is a great fit.

See salaries and explore the career path for Solidity Developer

Cryptocurrency Application Developer

A cryptocurrency application developer creates applications that use or interact with cryptocurrencies, often involving smart contracts on platforms such as Ethereum. This role requires a solid grasp of Solidity's data structures, covered in detail in this course. This course helps a cryptocurrency application developer manage state variables, and initialize smart contracts using arrays, mappings, enums, and structs. The course's focus on advanced structures such as nested mappings and struct assignment is especially vital for this role. This course is an excellent fit, greatly enhancing the capability of a cryptocurrency app developer.

See salaries and explore the career path for Cryptocurrency Application Developer

Blockchain Engineer

A blockchain engineer is a professional who designs, develops, and maintains blockchain-based systems and applications. This role requires expertise in smart contract development and understanding advanced data structures in languages like Solidity. This course covers both, with a focus on implementing arrays, mappings, enums, and structs, which are necessary for building blockchain applications. This course helps blockchain engineers to create customized data types using mappings and struct groupings. It allows them to efficiently manage complex data in their smart contracts and practice coding through hands-on exercises. This course is a very good fit for a blockchain engineer who seeks to solidify their understanding of Solidity's data structures.

See salaries and explore the career path for Blockchain Engineer

Decentralized Application Developer

A decentralized application developer or a dApp developer builds applications on blockchain networks using smart contracts. This role demands a thorough knowledge of Solidity, particularly its data handling capabilities, which are directly addressed in this course. A decentralized application developer frequently uses complex data structures, and this course helps with the use of arrays, mappings, enums, and structs to build efficient dApps. The course's coverage of nested mappings and struct assignments within mappings helps in building secure and scalable applications. This course provides an excellent basis for those who build dApps. This course will be quite beneficial.

See salaries and explore the career path for Decentralized Application Developer

Web3 Developer

A web3 developer builds applications and services on the decentralized web, often employing smart contracts. This role would benefit immensely from a strong understanding of Solidity's data structures. This course helps a web3 developer work with arrays, mappings, enums, and structs, which is critical for building the smart contracts underlying Web3 applications. This course provides hands-on exercises for working with these data structures and solving real-world coding problems. The focus on nested mappings and struct assignments helps a web3 developer build advanced, secure applications. This course is a great fit for anyone interested in Web3 development.

See salaries and explore the career path for Web3 Developer

Blockchain Solutions Architect

A blockchain solutions architect designs and oversees the implementation of blockchain solutions. While this role is more conceptual, it involves understanding the capabilities and limitations of the underlying technology, including smart contracts and their data structures. This course helps a blockchain solutions architect to understand how data is structured and managed in smart contracts. This course's focus on Solidity's arrays, mappings, enums, and structs helps them to design more efficient and scalable solutions. While not directly involved in writing code day to day, this course does give a better understanding of the data structures that a blockchain solutions architect utilizes in their work. This course may be helpful.

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Technical Consultant

A technical consultant provides expertise to organizations on technology-related matters, which can often include blockchain. While technical consultants are not typically required to be coders, this course may provide a better understanding of the underlying technology that they are consulting on. This course helps a technical consultant to understand how smart contracts operate and how their data is managed. The course's focus on Solidity's arrays, mappings, enums, and structs may be valuable for technical consultants who may need to explain these concepts to others. This may be a useful course.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Consultant

Software Engineer

Software engineers design and develop software applications. While this role is broad, some software engineers may venture into blockchain based applications, therefore this course may be useful. This course touches on structured data, and software engineers often need to understand how to make efficient use of data. This course which teaches Solidity's arrays, mappings, enums, and structs may help them to enhance their knowledge of structured data. Software engineers also are often involved in problem solving, and this course provides hands-on exercises that may enhance those abilities. Therefore, this course may be useful to software engineers.

See salaries and explore the career path for Software Engineer

Financial Technology Specialist

A financial technology specialist leverages technology to enhance financial services. While this role may not typically involve blockchain, some financial technology specialists may work with this technology, especially as it becomes more popular. This course helps financial technology specialists to understand how data is structured in smart contracts by introducing arrays, mappings, enums and structs in Solidity. Understanding smart contracts may be helpful to a financial technology specialist. This course might be useful.

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Cryptocurrency Analyst

A cryptocurrency analyst researches and analyzes cryptocurrency markets and trends, while some might focus on the technological side. This course may be useful for those analysts who have a technical focus. While not a core requirement, they can benefit from a better understanding of how smart contracts and their data structures are built. This course provides a look at how data is managed within smart contracts. The course's discussion of arrays, mappings, enums, and structs in Solidity might contribute to a more nuanced understanding of cryptocurrency technology. This course may be useful.

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Data Scientist

A data scientist analyzes and interprets complex data, often using specialized tools and techniques. While this role doesn't typically involve smart contract development, a data scientist may need to work with blockchain based data. This course introduces ways in which data can be structured, which may be helpful to a data scientist. This course teaches ways in which developers use arrays, mappings, enums and structs in Solidity. This course may be useful for a data scientist seeking to broaden their knowledge.

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Cybersecurity Analyst

A cybersecurity analyst works to protect computer systems and networks from threats. With the rise of blockchain, cybersecurity analysts may work in the blockchain space, in which case they might find this course useful. While the primary focus of cyber security is not programming, the course teaches about smart contract data structures such as arrays, mappings, enums, and structs in Solidity. The concepts that are taught in this course may be helpful in making decisions about the security of smart contracts. This course may be useful for a cyber security analyst.

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Research Scientist

A research scientist conducts research in their field of expertise and may find this course useful in some instances. The course touches on a particular method of structuring data which may be useful in a small subset of research areas. The course's exploration of arrays, mappings, enums, and structs in Solidity may be useful in research projects which involve blockchain and smart contracts. This course may be useful to a limited subset of research scientists.

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Technology Educator

A technology educator teaches technical skills and concepts. This course might prove to be useful to one who teaches about blockchain and smart contract technology. This course focuses on how data structures are implemented within Solidity smart contracts, which is an important conceptual idea in the technology. The course's exploration of arrays, mappings, enums, and structs may be valuable knowledge for a technology educator to pass on to students. This course may be useful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technology Educator

Solidity In-Depth

Arrays, Mappings, and Advanced Structures

What's inside

Syllabus

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Solidity data structures deep dive

Activities

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