Topic 15

Implementing and Using Stacks

"stack n.
The set of things a person has to do in the future. "I haven't
done it yet because every time I pop my stack something new
gets pushed." If you are interrupted several times in the
middle of a conversation, "My stack overflowed" means "I
forget what we were talking about."

-The Hacker's Dictionary

Friedrich L. Bauer
German computer scientist
who proposed "stack method
of expression evaluation"
in 1955.
 Sharper Tools

Stacks
Lists

CS314 2
Stacks
 Stacks
 Access is allowed only at one point of the structure,
normally termed the top of the stack
– access to the most recently added item only
 Operations are limited:
– push (add item to stack)
– pop (remove top item from stack)
– top (get top item without removing it)
– isEmpty
 Described as a "Last In First Out"
(LIFO) data structure

CS314 3
Stacks
 Stack Operations
Assume a simple stack for integers.
Stack<Integer> s = new Stack<Integer>();
s.push(12);
s.push(4);
s.push( s.top() + 2 );
s.pop();
s.push( s.top() );
//what are contents of stack?

CS314 4
Stacks
 Stack Operations
Write a method to print out contents of stack
in reverse order.

CS314 5
Stacks
 Uses of Stacks
 The runtime stack used by a
process (running program) to
keep track of methods in
progress
 Search problems
 Undo, redo, back, forward

CS314 6
Stacks
 What is Output?
Stack<Integer> s = new Stack<Integer>();
// put stuff in stack
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
s.push( i );
// Print out contents of stack
// while emptying it.
// Assume there is a size method.
for(int i = 0; i < s.size(); i++)
System.out.print( s.pop() + “ “);
A 0 1 2 3 4 D 2 3 4
B 4 3 2 1 0 E No output due
C 4 3 2 to runtime error
CS314 7
Stacks
 Corrected Version
Stack<Integer> s = new Stack<Integer>();
// put stuff in stack
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
s.push( i );
// print out contents of stack
// while emptying it
int limit = s.size();
for(int i = 0; i < limit; i++)
System.out.print( s.pop() + “ “);
//or
// while( !s.isEmpty() )
// System.out.println( s.pop() );
CS314 8
Stacks
 Implementing a stack
 need an underlying collection to hold the elements
of the stack
 2 obvious choices
– array (native or ArrayList)
– linked list
 Adding a layer of abstraction. A big idea.
 array implementation

 linked list implementation

CS314 9
Stacks
Applications of Stacks
 Mathematical Calculations
 What does 3 + 2 * 4 equal?
2 * 4 + 3? 3 * 2 + 4?
 The precedence of operators affects the
order of operations.
 A mathematical expression cannot simply be
evaluated left to right.
 A challenge when evaluating a program.
 Lexical analysis is the process of
interpreting a program.

What about 1 - 2 - 4 ^ 5 * 3 * 6 / 7 ^ 2 ^ 3
CS314 11
Stacks
 Infix and Postfix Expressions
 The way we are use to writing
expressions is known as infix
notation
 Postfix expression does not
 require any precedence rules
 3 2 * 1 + is postfix of 3 * 2 + 1
 evaluate the following postfix
expressions and write out a
corresponding infix expression:
2324*+* 1234^*+
12-32^3*6/+ 25^1-
CS314 12
Stacks
 Clicker Question 2
 What does the following postfix expression
evaluate to?
632+*
A.18
B.36
C.24
D.11
E.30

CS314 13
Stacks
 Evaluation of Postfix Expressions
 Easy to do with a stack
 given a proper postfix expression:
– get the next token
– if it is an operand push it onto the stack
– else if it is an operator
• pop the stack for the right hand operand
• pop the stack for the left hand operand
• apply the operator to the two operands
• push the result onto the stack
– when the expression has been exhausted the
result is the top (and only element) of the stack
CS314 14
Stacks
 Infix to Postfix
 Convert the following equations from infix to
postfix:
2^3^3+5*1
11 + 2 - 1 * 3 / 3 + 2 ^ 2 / 3
Problems:
Negative numbers?
parentheses in expression

CS314 15
Stacks
 Infix to Postfix Conversion
 Requires operator precedence parsing algorithm
– parse v. To determine the syntactic structure of a
sentence or other utterance
Operands: add to expression
Close parenthesis: pop stack symbols until an open
parenthesis appears
Operators:
Have an on stack and off stack precedence
Pop all stack symbols until a symbol of lower
precedence appears. Then push the operator
End of input: Pop all remaining stack symbols and
add to the expression
CS314 16
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression: 3+2*4
PostFix Expression:
Operator Stack:
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 17
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression: +2*4
PostFix Expression: 3
Operator Stack:
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 18
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression: 2*4
PostFix Expression: 3
Operator Stack: +
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 19
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression: *4
PostFix Expression: 3 2
Operator Stack: +
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 20
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression: 4
PostFix Expression: 3 2
Operator Stack: +*
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 21
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression:
PostFix Expression: 3 2 4
Operator Stack: +*
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 22
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression:
PostFix Expression: 3 2 4 *
Operator Stack: +
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 23
Stacks
 Simple Example
Infix Expression:
PostFix Expression: 3 2 4 * +
Operator Stack:
Precedence Table
Symbol Off Stack On Stack
Precedence Precedence
+ 1 1
- 1 1
* 2 2
/ 2 2
^ 10 9
( 20 0

CS314 24
Stacks
 Example
1-2^3^3-(4+5*6)*7
Show algorithm in action on above equation

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Stacks
 Balanced Symbol Checking
 In processing programs and working with
computer languages there are many
instances when symbols must be balanced
{},[],()

A stack is useful for checking symbol balance.

When a closing symbol is found it must match
the most recent opening symbol of the same
type.
 Applicable to checking html and xml tags!

CS314 26
Stacks
 Algorithm for Balanced
Symbol Checking
 Make an empty stack
 read symbols until end of file
– if the symbol is an opening symbol push it onto
the stack
– if it is a closing symbol do the following
• if the stack is empty report an error
• otherwise pop the stack. If the symbol popped does
not match the closing symbol report an error
 At the end of the file if the stack is not empty
report an error
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Stacks
 Algorithm in practice
 list[i] = 3 * ( 44 - method( foo( list[ 2 * (i + 1) +
foo( list[i - 1] ) ) / 2 * ) - list[ method(list[0])];

 Complications
– when is it not an error to have non matching symbols?

 Processing a file
– Tokenization: the process of scanning an input stream.
Each independent chunk is a token.
 Tokens may be made up of 1 or more characters

CS314 28
Stacks