Last Updated: 18 January, 2025 4 Mins
Stack is a linear data structure used to store and manipulate collection of data elements. Stack follows the LIFO (Last In First Out) principle that means the last element added to the stack will be removed first from the stack.
In stack, insertion and deletion of element can be done from the one end known as the top of the stack.
Stacks data structure offer many advantages that make them essential for a wide range of applications. The following are the main benefits of stack data structures:
Last-in, First-out (LIFO): Stacks follow the LIFO principle, ensuring that the last element added to the stack is the first one removed. This behavior is useful in many scenarios, such as function calls and expression evaluation.
Simplicity: Stacks are a simple and easy-to-understand data structure, making them suitable for a wide range of applications.
Efficiency: Data can be accessed efficiently by performing push and pop operations on a stack in constant time (O(1)). One type of static data structure is an array.
efficient memory management: Stacks only need to store the elements that have been pushed onto them, making them memory-efficient compared to other data structures.
Recursive algorithms support: Many algorithms, such as depth-first search in graph traversal and recursive functions, inherently rely on the stack data structure. It enables efficient tracking of recursive calls and their results.
Undo Mechanism: Stacks are used in many applications to implement "undo" functionality. A useful feature of programs like text editors and graphic design tools is the ability to retrace through activities by pushing each action or state change onto the stack.
Fast access time: Stack data structure provides fast access time for adding and removing elements as the elements are added and removed from the top of the stack.
While stacks are a powerful data structure with distinct uses, they have several restrictions.
Limited access: As Stack follow LIFO (Last In First Out) principle, we can only access top element in a Stack suppose if we need to access element in middle or end, we need to pop elements until we reach the wanted element, which can be inefficient, especially for large stacks.
Random access not allowed: Stack does not allow for random access to elements so such types of data structure is not unsuitable for applications where elements need to be accessed in a specific order.
Potential for overflow: Pushing too many elements onto a stack without popping any can cause a stack overflow error, particularly in languages with fixed-size stacks.
Fixed Size: In some implementations, stacks have a fixed size, which means that we cannot add more elements once the it is full.
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