Stacks and Applications

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 Stacks
• Stack
– It is a special kind of list
– Can only add/delete/look at one end commonly
referred to as top)

• Advantages
– They are simple, easy to understand
– Each operation is O(1)

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 Stacks …
• Example
– Pile of books
• It is
– Push-down list
– Last In First Out (LIFO) list

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 Stack ADT
• Data members
– Array, size of the stack and top of the stack

• Operations
– Push: placing an element in the stack
– Pop : removing an element in the stack
– Peep: check the top most element
– IsEmpty
– Is Full
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 Example of a stack
• Consider the elements Initially
{1,2,3,4}, stack ‘s’ and -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
tos at -1 tos

• Push Push 1 1
– Increment tos and place -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
the element
tos

• Pop Pop
Push 4
2
3 1 2 3 4
– Take the element and -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
decrement the tos

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 Cont …
class _stack_
{
int *st;
int size;
int tos;
public:
void push(int);
int pop();
int peep();
bool IsEmpty();
bool IsFull();
_stack_() ;
~_stack()_ ;
void display() ;
};

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 Applications
• Function Activation Records
• Balancing symbols
• Expression evaluation (Postfix expression)
• Infix to prefix conversion
• Infix to postfix conversion …..

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 App1: Activation records
• when a function is called in C (or any language):
– suspend the current execution sequence
– allocate space for parameters, locals, return value, …
– transfer control to the new function
• when the function terminates:
– deallocate parameters, locals, …
– transfer control back to the calling point (& possibly return a value)
• note: functions are LIFO entities
– main is called first, terminates last
– if main calls Foo and Foo calls Bar, then Bar terminates before Foo
which terminates before main
• a stack is a natural data structure for storing information
about function calls and the state of the execution

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 Activation records
• an activation record stores info (parameters, locals, …) for
each invocation of a function
• when the function is called, an activation record is pushed
onto the stack
– when the function terminates, its activation record is popped
– note that the currently executing function is always at the top of the
stack

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 Activation Record : Recursion
Int fact(int n)
{
if (n==1)
return 1;
else
return(n x fact(n-1));
}

Int main()
{
int fact(int) ;
int fact_val = 0;
fact_val = fact(4) ;
return 0 ;
}
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 App 2: Balancing Symbols
• When analyzing arithmetic expressions, it is
important to determine whether an
expression is balanced with respect to
parentheses
– (a+b*(c/(d-e)))+(d/e)
• Problem is further complicated if braces or
brackets are used in conjunction with
parenthesis
• Solution is to use stacks!
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 Balancing Symbols
• start with an empty stack of characters
• traverse the expression from left to right
– if next character is a left delimiter, push onto the
stack
– if next character is a right delimiter, must match
the top of the stack

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 Balancing symbols: (a+b*[c/{d-e}])+(f/g)
Character Operation Stack contents
( Push (
a,+, b, * Skip (
[ Push ([
c, / Skip ([
{ Push ([{
d, -, e Skip ([{
} Pop and match ([
] Pop and match (
) Pop and match Empty
+ Skip Empty
( Push (
f, /, g skip (
) Pop and match Empty
05/11/11 End of string Is stack empty
Center for Development Balanced
of Advanced Computing 13
 Evaluation of arithmetic
expressions
• Prefix: + a b
• Infix: a + b (what we use in grammar school)
• Postfix: a b +

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 App 3: Infix to Postfix Conversion
• Rules:
– Start from left of the infix expression
– Operands immediately go directly to output – postfix expression
– Operators are pushed into the stack (including parenthesis)
• Priority of the operators (assume)
- Precision 2: * /
- Precision 1: + -
- Precision 0: (
• Lower precedence operator cannot be on top of a higher precedence
operator
– If a lower precedence operator is encountered, pop the operators and append
them to the output postfix string till we encounter a lesser precedence
operator or stack is empty.
• If we encounter a right parenthesis, pop from stack until we get matching
left parenthesis. Do not output parenthesis.
• If the infix string reaches end of string, pop all the operators from stack
and append them to the output postfix expression string

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 Example: a+b*c+(d*e+f)*g

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 Infix to Postfix Example
A+B*C-D/E
Infix Operation on Stack postfix
stack
a Empty a
+ Push + a
b + ab
* Check and push +* ab
c +* abc
- Check and push - abc*+
d - abc*+d
/ Check and push -/ abc*+d
e -/ abc*+de
End of string Pop till empty abc*+de/-
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 Infix to Postfix Example #2
A*B-(C+D)+E
Infix Operation on stack Stack postfix
a Empty a
* Push * a
b * ab
- Check and push - ab*
( Push -( ab*
c -( ab*c
+ Check and push -(+ ab*c
d -(+ ab*cd
) Pop and append to postfix - ab*cd+
till ‘(‘
+ Check and push + ab*cd+-
e + ab*cd+-e
End of string Pop till empty ab*cd+-e+
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 App 4: Postfix Evaluation
Rules:
Operand: push
Operator: pop 2 operands, perform the operation, push result back
onto stack

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 Evaluation : 123+*
Character Stack operation
1 1
2 12
3 123
+ 15 Pop 3, 2 ;
2+3 = 5
Push 5
* 5 Pop 5, 1;
1*5 = 5
Push 5
End of string Result is 5

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Evaluation : 6 5 2 3 + 8 * + 3 + *
Character Stack Operation
6 6
5 65
2 652
3 6523
+ 655 Pop 3, 2; 2+3 = 5 ; push 5
8 6558
* 6 5 40 Pop 8, 5; 5*8 = 40; push 40
+ 6 45 Pop 40, 5; 5+40 = 45; push 45
3 6 45 3
+ 6 48 Pop 3, 45; 45+3 = 48; push 48
* 288 Pop 48, 6; 6*48 = 288; push 288
End of string Result is 288

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 Infix to Prefix conversion
• Rules:
– Start from right of the infix expression
– Operands immediately go directly to output – output expression
– Operators are pushed into the stack (including right parenthesis)
• Priority of the operators (assume)
- Precision 2: * /
- Precision 1: + -
- Precision 0: )
• Lower precedence operator cannot be on top of a higher precedence
operator
– If a lower precedence operator is encountered, pop the operators and append
them to the output postfix string till we encounter a lesser or equal
precedence operator or stack is empty.
• If we encounter a left parenthesis, pop from stack until we get matching
right parenthesis. Do not output parenthesis.
• If the infix string reaches end of string, pop all the operators from stack
and append them to the output expression string.
• Now reverse the output expression string. This is the final prefix
expression
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Infix to Prefix Example #1 A*B-(C+D)+E
Infix Operation on stack Stack Output string
E Empty E
+ Push + E
) Push +) E
D +) ED
+ Check and push +)+ ED
C +)+ EDC
( Pop and append to o/p till + EDC+
’)’
- Check and push +- EDC+
B +- EDC+B
* Check and push +-* EDC+B
A +-* EDC+BA
End of string Pop till empty EDC+BA*-+
Prefix expression is: +-*AB+CDE
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 Thank you

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