> I've faced this over and over again. Writing algorithms is hard when the underlying data is not optimal. It simply invites writing complicated code and workar

> I've faced this over and over again. Writing algorithms is hard when the underlying data is not optimal. It simply invites writing complicated code and workarounds. This is actually one of the reasons I am moving more and more to functional programming for myself. I find that modeling the data as just data makes it easier to find a good representation. And that it usually results in simpler algorithms.