Not sure exactly how to define this but here's the basis of the question (very loosely)
- All lists can be contained in tree's
- all trees can be contained in a graph
- all graphs can be contained in a multi graph,
- and all multigraphs can be contained in a hypergraph (never actually heard of a hypergraph before searching for an answer to this, so may not have it quite right)
So there's a containment hierarchy of 'complexity' of data structures. Is Hypergraph the highest one, is there a proof of this, and is there a name for the study of whatever this is.
By highest one, I mean all structures can be represented as a hypergraph if I chose to. So in any code I could represent all the structures by using a number of hypergraphs (not that I would). tia
[Update] Perhaps an alternative way to ask it is, for any arrangement of data structures consisting of nodes and edges. Does there exist a structure that can't be contained in a hypergraph.
Then there is a second question - is there any data structure which can't be represented using nodes and edges.