Stack

A Stack is a linear data structure that adds and removes items from the top in a last-in, first-out (LIFO) order. The Stack class comes from the java.util package and extends the legacy Vector class.

An opposite data structure is the Queue interface, which follows the first-in, first-out (FIFO) order. The Stack and Queue concepts can be observed in everyday life (e.g., waiting in a line of people to purchase something or washing a stack of dishes from top to bottom).

Since Java 1.6, there is a more recent implementation of LIFO stack operations, the Deque interface. As stated in the JDK documentation, Deque interface should be used in preference to the legacy Stack class. Whenever a Deque is used as a Stack, elements are pushed and popped from the beginning of the Deque. The table below shows the equivalent methods between Stack and Deque:

Syntax

import java.util.Stack;

Stack<DataType> s = new Stack<>();

Where DataType is the data type to be stored in the stack.

Note: Unlike Queue, Stack is a concrete class and not an interface.

Methods

The Stack class provides the following methods:

• .push(item): adds an item to the top of the Stack.
• .pop(): removes and returns the object at the top of the Stack, throwing an exception when the Stack is empty.
• .peek(): returns the (top) of the Stack without removing it, and throws an exception when the Stack is empty.
• .empty(): returns true if the Stack contains no items or false, otherwise.
• .search(item): returns the distance the item is from the top of the Stack, starting from 1, or -1 is if item is not in the Stack.

Example

The following example demonstrates the Stack class:

// Main.java
import java.util.Stack;
import java.util.Arrays;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Stack<String> books = new Stack<>();
    System.out.println(books.isEmpty());
    books.push("Effective Java");
    books.push("Head First Java");
    books.push("Thinking in Java");
    System.out.println(books.size());
    System.out.println(books.search("Effective Java"));
    System.out.println(books.search("Java for dummies"));
    System.out.println(books.peek());
    System.out.println(books.pop());
    System.out.println(books.size());
    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(books.toArray()));
 }
}

This will output the following:

true
3
3
-1
Thinking in Java
Thinking in Java
2
[Effective Java, Head First Java]