In computing, an abstract data type (ADT) is a specification of a set of data and the set of operations that can be performed on the data. Such a data type is abstract in the sense that it is independent of various concrete implementations. The definition can be mathematical, or it can be programmed as an interface. A first class ADT supports the creation of multiple instances of the ADT, and the interface normally provides a constructor, which returns an abstract handle to new data, and several operations, which are functions accepting the abstract handle as an argument.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_data_type
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_data_type
