Stacks and Queues
Queue from Two Stacks
Implement queue behavior with an input stack and an output stack.
Algorithm
The replay uses the same three values in every language, so this Java DSA implementation can be compared directly with the rest of the DSA track.
Basic Implementation
Basic.java
import java.util.*;
public class Basic {
static String render(List<Integer> values) {
StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < values.size(); i++) {
if (i > 0) out.append(" -> ");
out.append(values.get(i));
}
return out.toString();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Deque<Integer> inStack = new ArrayDeque<>();
Deque<Integer> outStack = new ArrayDeque<>();
for (int value : new int[] {10, 20, 30}) inStack.push(value);
while (!inStack.isEmpty()) outStack.push(inStack.pop());
List<Integer> removed = new ArrayList<>();
while (!outStack.isEmpty()) removed.add(outStack.pop());
System.out.println(render(removed));
}
}
Complexity
- Time: O(1) amortized per operation
- Space: O(n)
Implementation notes
- Keep the explicit stack/queue operations. Library shortcuts that only produce the final list hide the data-structure behavior this lesson is meant to replay.
- The final output uses a deterministic
a -> b -> cformat for cross-language comparison.
input stack
Enqueue pushes new values onto the input stack.
output stack
When the output stack is empty, transferring all input values reverses them into dequeue order.