Beginning Java Data Structures and Algorithms

Modeling Stacks and Queues Using Arrays

Stacks and queues don't necessarily need to be dynamic. You may want a more concise implementation if you know your data requirements are of a fixed size. Using an array approach to model stacks and queues guarantees that your data structure will only grow up to a certain size. The other advantage of using an array is that the array approach is more memory efficient if you can live with having a static data structure. The catch with static data structures is that the queue or stack can only grow to a maximum fixed size of your initially allocated array.

Implementing a stack using an array involves first initializing an empty array with a fixed size. Then, it's a matter of keeping an index pointer to ...