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StacksandQueues
Anarrayisarandomaccessdatastructure,whereeachelementcanbeaccesseddirectlyandinconstanttime.Atypicalillustrationofrandomaccessisabookeachpageofthebookcanbeopenindependentlyofothers.Random
accessiscriticaltomanyalgorithms,forexamplebinarysearch.

Alinkedlistisasequentialaccessdatastructure,whereeachelementcanbeaccesedonlyinparticularorder.Atypicalillustrationofsequentialaccessisarollofpaperortapeallpriormaterialmustbeunrolledinordertogetto
datayouwant.

Inthisnoteweconsiderasubcaseofsequentialdatastructures,socalledlimitedaccessdatasturctures.

Stacks

Astackisacontainerofobjectsthatareinsertedandremovedaccordingtothelastinfirstout(LIFO)principle.Inthepushdownstacksonlytwooperationsareallowed:pushtheitem
intothestack,andpoptheitemoutofthestack.Astackisalimitedaccessdatastructureelementscanbeaddedandremovedfromthestackonlyatthetop.pushaddsanitemtothetop
ofthestack,popremovestheitemfromthetop.Ahelpfulanalogyistothinkofastackofbooksyoucanremoveonlythetopbook,alsoyoucanaddanewbookonthetop.

Astackisarecursivedatastructure.HereisastructuraldefinitionofaStack:

astackiseitheremptyor
itconsistesofatopandtherestwhichisastack

Applications

Thesimplestapplicationofastackistoreverseaword.Youpushagivenwordtostackletterbyletterandthenpoplettersfromthestack.
Anotherapplicationisan"undo"mechanismintexteditorsthisoperationisaccomplishedbykeepingalltextchangesinastack.

Backtracking.Thisisaprocesswhenyouneedtoaccessthemostrecentdataelementinaseriesofelements.Thinkofalabyrinthormazehowdoyoufindawayfromanentrancetoanexit?

Onceyoureachadeadend,youmustbacktrack.Butbacktracktowhere?tothepreviouschoicepoint.Therefore,ateachchoicepointyoustoreonastackallpossiblechoices.Then
backtrackingsimplymeanspoppinganextchoicefromthestack.

Languageprocessing:
spaceforparametersandlocalvariablesiscreatedinternallyusingastack.
compiler'ssyntaxcheckformatchingbracesisimplementedbyusingstack.
supportforrecursion
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Implementation

Inthestandardlibraryofclasses,thedatatypestackisanadapterclass,meaningthatastackisbuiltontopofotherdatastructures.Theunderlyingstructureforastackcouldbeanarray,avector,anArrayList,alinkedlist,orany
othercollection.Regardlessofthetypeoftheunderlyingdatastructure,aStackmustimplementthesamefunctionality.Thisisachievedbyprovidingauniqueinterface:

publicinterfaceStackInterface<AnyType>
{
publicvoidpush(AnyTypee)

publicAnyTypepop()

publicAnyTypepeek()

publicbooleanisEmpty()
}

Thefollowingpicturedemonstratestheideaofimplementationbycomposition.

Anotherimplementationrequirement(inadditiontotheaboveinterface)isthatallstackoperationsmustruninconstanttimeO(1).Constanttimemeansthatthereissomeconstantksuchthatanoperationtakesknanosecondsof
computationaltimeregardlessofthestacksize.

Arraybasedimplementation

Inanarraybasedimplementationwemaintainthefollowingfields:anarrayAofadefaultsize(1),thevariabletopthatreferstothetopelementinthestackandthecapacitythat
referstothearraysize.Thevariabletopchangesfrom1tocapacity1.Wesaythatastackisemptywhentop=1,andthestackisfullwhentop=capacity1.

Inafixedsizestackabstraction,thecapacitystaysunchanged,thereforewhentopreachescapacity,thestackobjectthrowsanexception.SeeArrayStack.javaforacomplete
implementationofthestackclass.

Inadynamicstackabstractionwhentopreachescapacity,wedoubleupthestacksize.

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LinkedListbasedimplementation

LinkedListbasedimplementationprovidesthebest(fromtheefficiencypointofview)dynamicstackimplementation.

SeeListStack.javaforacompleteimplementationofthestackclass.

Queues

Aqueueisacontainerofobjects(alinearcollection)thatareinsertedandremovedaccordingtothefirstinfirstout(FIFO)principle.Anexcellentexampleofaqueueisa
lineofstudentsinthefoodcourtoftheUC.Newadditionstoalinemadetothebackofthequeue,whileremoval(orserving)happensinthefront.Inthequeueonlytwo
operationsareallowedenqueueanddequeue.Enqueuemeanstoinsertanitemintothebackofthequeue,dequeuemeansremovingthefrontitem.Thepicture
demonstratestheFIFOaccess.

Thedifferencebetweenstacksandqueuesisinremoving.Inastackweremovetheitemthemostrecentlyaddedinaqueue,weremovetheitemtheleastrecentlyadded.

Implementation

Inthestandardlibraryofclasses,thedatatypequeueisanadapterclass,meaningthataqueueisbuiltontopofotherdatastructures.Theunderlyingstructureforaqueuecouldbeanarray,aVector,anArrayList,aLinkedList,orany
othercollection.Regardlessofthetypeoftheunderlyingdatastructure,aqueuemustimplementthesamefunctionality.Thisisachievedbyprovidingauniqueinterface.

interfaceQueueInterfaceAnyType>
{
publicbooleanisEmpty()

publicAnyTypegetFront()

publicAnyTypedequeue()

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publicvoidenqueue(AnyTypee)

publicvoidclear()
}

EachoftheabovebasicoperationsmustrunatconstanttimeO(1).Thefollowingpicturedemonstratestheideaofimplementationbycomposition.

CircularQueue

GivenanarrayAofadefaultsize(1)withtworeferencesbackandfront,originallysetto1and0respectively.Eachtimeweinsert(enqueue)anewitem,weincreasethebackindexwhenweremove(dequeue)anitemwe
increasethefrontindex.Hereisapicturethatillustratesthemodelafterafewsteps:

Asyouseefromthepicture,thequeuelogicallymovesinthearrayfromlefttoright.Afterseveralmovesbackreachestheend,leavingnospaceforaddingnewelements

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However,thereisafreespacebeforethefrontindex.Weshallusethatspaceforenqueueingnewitems,i.e.thenextentrywillbestoredatindex0,then1,untilfront.Suchamodeliscalledawraparoundqueueoracircularqueue

Finally,whenbackreachesfront,thequeueisfull.Therearetwochoicestohandleafullqueue:a)throwanexceptionb)doublethearraysize.

Thecircularqueueimplementationisdonebyusingthemodulooperator(denoted%),whichiscomputedbytakingtheremainderofdivision(forexample,8%5is3).Byusingthemodulooperator,wecanviewthequeueasa
circulararray,wherethe"wrappedaround"canbesimulatedas"back%array_size".Inadditiontothebackandfrontindexes,wemaintainanotherindex:curforcountingthenumberofelementsinaqueue.Havingthisindex
simplifiesalogicofimplementation.

SeeArrayQueue.javaforacompleteimplementationofacircularqueue.

Applications
ThesimplesttwosearchtechniquesareknownasDepthFirstSearch(DFS)andBreadthFirstSearch(BFS).Thesetwosearchesaredescribedbylookingathowthesearchtree(representingallthepossiblepathsfromthestart)will
betraversed.

DeapthFirstSearchwithaStack
Indepthfirstsearchwegodownapathuntilwegettoadeadendthenwebacktrackorbackup(bypoppingastack)togetanalternativepath.

Createastack
Createanewchoicepoint
Pushthechoicepointontothestack
while(notfoundandstackisnotempty)
Popthestack
Findallpossiblechoicesafterthelastonetried
Pushthesechoicesontothestack
Return

BreadthFirstSearchwithaQueue

Inbreadthfirstsearchweexploreallthenearestpossibilitiesbyfindingallpossiblesuccessorsandenqueuethemtoaqueue.

Createaqueue
Createanewchoicepoint
Enqueuethechoicepointontothequeue
while(notfoundandqueueisnotempty)
Dequeuethequeue
Findallpossiblechoicesafterthelastonetried
Enqueuethesechoicesontothequeue
Return

Wewillseemoreonsearchtechniqueslaterinthecourse.

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ArithmeticExpressionEvaluation

Animportantapplicationofstacksisinparsing.Forexample,acompilermustparsearithmeticexpressionswrittenusinginfixnotation:

1+((2+3)*4+5)*6

Webreaktheproblemofparsinginfixexpressionsintotwostages.First,weconvertfrominfixtoadifferentrepresentationcalledpostfix.Thenweparsethepostfixexpression,whichisasomewhateasierproblemthandirectly
parsinginfix.

ConvertingfromInfixtoPostfix.Typically,wedealwithexpressionsininfixnotation

2+5

wheretheoperators(e.g.+,*)arewrittenbetweentheoperands(e.q,2and5).Writingtheoperatorsaftertheoperandsgivesapostfixexpression2and5arecalledoperands,andthe'+'isoperator.Theabovearithmeticexpressionis
calledinfix,sincetheoperatorisinbetweenoperands.Theexpression

25+

Writingtheoperatorsbeforetheoperandsgivesaprefixexpression

+25

Supposeyouwanttocomputethecostofyourshoppingtrip.Todoso,youaddalistofnumbersandmultiplythembythelocalsalestax(7.25%):

70+150*1.0725

Dependingonthecalculator,theanswerwouldbeeither235.95or230.875.Toavoidthisconfusionweshalluseapostfixnotation

70150+1.0725*

Postfixhasthenicepropertythatparenthesesareunnecessary.

Now,wedescribehowtoconvertfrominfixtopostfix.

1.Readinthetokensoneatatime
2.Ifatokenisaninteger,writeitintotheoutput
3.Ifatokenisanoperator,pushittothestack,ifthestackisempty.Ifthestackisnotempty,youpopentrieswithhigherorequalpriorityandonlythenyoupushthattokentothestack.
4.Ifatokenisaleftparentheses'(',pushittothestack
5.Ifatokenisarightparentheses')',youpopentriesuntilyoumeet'('.
6.Whenyoufinishreadingthestring,youpopupalltokenswhichareleftthere.
7.Arithmeticprecedenceisinincreasingorder:'+','','*','/'

Example.Supposewehaveaninfixexpression:2+(4+3*2+1)/3.Wereadthestringbycharacters.

'2'sendtotheoutput.
'+'pushonthestack.
'('pushonthestack.
'4'sendtotheoutput.
'+'pushonthestack.
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'3'sendtotheoutput.
'*'pushonthestack.
'2'sendtotheoutput.

EvaluatingaPostfixExpression.Wedescribehowtoparseandevaluateapostfixexpression.

1.Wereadthetokensinoneatatime.
2.Ifitisaninteger,pushitonthestack
3.Ifitisabinaryoperator,popthetoptwoelementsfromthestack,applytheoperator,andpushtheresultbackonthestack.

Considerthefollowingpostfixexpression

593+42**7+*

Hereisachainofoperations

StackOperationsOutput

push(5)5
push(9)59
push(3)593
push(pop()+pop())512
push(4)5124
push(2)51242
push(pop()*pop())5128
push(pop()*pop())596
push(7)5967
push(pop()+pop())5103
push(pop()*pop())515

Note,thatdivisionisnotacommutativeoperation,so2/3isnotthesameas3/2.

VictorS.Adamchik,CMU,2009

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