The TAO of Java

Stacks

Summary: We consider the essential features of stacks, one of the forms of linear structures. We also consider a straightforward implementation of stacks.

Prerequisites: Linear Structures, Arrays, Polymorphism, Inheritance, Generics.

Contents:

• Stack Basics
• An Interface
• Applications of Stacks
• A Vector-Based Implementation of Stacks
• Terminology

Stack Basics

Given your prior understanding of linear structures, you should find that stacks are a fairly simple abstract data type. Stacks are linear structures that implement that last in, first out policy. That is, the value returned by get is the value most recently added to the stack.

An Interface

/**
 * A linear structure that follows the "last in, first out" policy.
 *
 * @author Samuel A. Rebelsky
 * @version 1.1 of March 2006
 */
public interface Stack<T>
  extends LinearStructure<T>
{
  /**
   * Add an element to the stack.  
   *
   * @param val
   *   The object that is to be added.
   * @post
   *   The stack now contains an additional copy of val.
   */
  public void put(T val);

  /**
   * Remove the most-recently-added element that is still in the
   * stack.
   *
   * @return val
   *   An object in the structure.
   * @pre
   *   The structure is not empty.
   * @post
   *   The structure contains one fewer copy of val.
   * @post
   *   Every value in the stack was added less recently than val.
   */
  public T get();

  /**
   * Determine which object will next be returned by get.
   *
   * @return val
   *   An object in the stack
   * @pre
   *   The structure is not empty.
   * @post
   *   Every other value in the stack was added less recently than val.
   */
  public T peek();

  /**
   * Determine if the stack is empty.
   */
  public boolean isEmpty();

} // interface Stack

One aspect of this code you may find of interest is that we have said that Stack<T> extends LinearStructure<T>. This extension is similar to the extension you've seen for classes, although it is used primarily for polymorphism. It means that you can use a Stack whereever code expects a LinearStructure

Applications of Stacks

There are a variety of ways in which computer scientists use stacks. At times, they use them simply because they need some linear structure, and stacks are convenient to use. More frequently, they identify problems for which the last-in, first-out policy is particularly appropriate.

One such class of problems involves matching symbols, such as tags in an HTML document or parens in a Scheme program. In essence, whenever you see an opening symbol, such as <b> in an HTML document or ( in a Scheme program, you push it on the stack. When you see a closing symbol, such as </b> in an HTML document or ) in a Scheme program, you pop the value on the stack and compare it to the closing symbol. If they match, you continue on. If they fail to match, you report an error. Clearly, if you encounter an end symbol with an empty stack, there's something seriously wrong with the document or program. Similarly, if the stack contains values at the end, there are also significant problems, since not all opening symbols are matched.

Stacks are also useful for certain kinds of operations. For example, some mathematicians like to use reverse polish notation (RPN), in which the operation follows the operands. In such a system, we would write add 2 and the product of 3 and 7 as 2 3 7 * +. RPN is useful because you don't have to worry about precedence rules. RPN is also very easy to implement using stacks.

• Whenever you encounter a value, you push it.
• Whenever you encounter an operation, pop the parameters and push the result.
• The value on the top of the stack when you are done is the final result.

A Vector-Based Implementation of Stacks

It is also fairly easy to implement stacks, at least once we have another data structure, such as a vector. In a vector-based implementation of stacks, we typically store the values as they come in, starting at index 0. When we pop a value, we use the index of the last value added and decrease that value. (Typically, we use a field called top to keep track of where to add values, but we might also use the size of the vector.)

When we create the stack, we need to initialize the two fields.

  public VectorBasedStack()
  {
    this.top = 0;
    this.contents = new Vector<T>();
  } // VectorBasedStack()

or

  public ArrayBasedStack()
  {
    this.size = 0;
    this.stuff = new Object[10];
  } // ArrayBasedStack()

Given that strategy, here's the basic code for put in VectorBasedStack.

    this.contents.put(this.top, newvalue);
    this.top++;

The put operation is similar for an ArrayBasedStack, provided we know that the put is safe.

    this.stuff[this.size] = newvalue;
    this.size++;

It is equally easy to get the value at the top of the stack: We just reverse those two steps.

    this.top--;
    return this.contents.get(this.top);

or

    this.size--;
    return (T) this.stuff[this.top];

Note that we need to cast the return value because of a design issue in Java that prevents us from creating arrays whose base type is a type parameter.

However, it is also better to clear out the cell in the vector when we delete a value. Hence, we will need to temporarily store the value to be returned before clearing the cell and then returning that value.

    this.top--;
    T returnme = this.contents.get(this.top);
    this.contents.set(this.top,null);
    this.contents.setSize(this.top);
    return returnme;

or

    this.size--;
    Object returnme = this.stuff[this.size];
    this.contents[this.size] = null; 
    return (T) returnme;

Determining whether or not the stack is empty is also easy: The stack is empty only when top is 0.

The only hard part is what to do when the stack fills. If we use arrays to implement the stack, we would need to do something clever, like make a bigger array and copy the values over. If we use vectors, the stack automatically expands.

Terminology

Unfortunately, some bright computer scientist designed the stack before some other bright computer scientist designed the more general linear structure. Hence, the terms that many folks use for the basic stack operations are not put and get, but rather push and pop.

To make our code more usable, we will stick with the linear structure terms.

History

Sunday, 6 March 2005 [Samuel A. Rebelsky]

• Created.

Tuesday, 7 March 2006 [Samuel A. Rebelsky]

• Updated for parameterized types.
• Updated to show both vector and array implementations.
• Minor edits.