Implement Stack using Two Queues

Version A (efficient push):

• push:
  • enqueue in queue1
• pop:
  • while size of queue1 is bigger than 1, pipe dequeued items from queue1 into queue2
  • dequeue and return the last item of queue1, then switch the names of queue1 and queue2

Version B (efficient pop):

• push:
  • enqueue in queue2
  • enqueue all items of queue1 in queue2, then switch the names of queue1 and queue2
• pop:
  • deqeue from queue1

We can do this with one queue:

push:

1. enqueue new element.
2. If n is the number of elements in the queue, then remove and insert element n-1 times.

pop:

1. dequeue

.

push 1


front                     
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 1  |    |    |    |    |    |    insert 1
+----+----+----+----+----+----+


push2

front                     
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 1  | 2  |    |    |    |    |    insert 2
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

     front                     
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|    | 2  |  1 |    |    |    |    remove and insert 1
+----+----+----+----+----+----+




 insert 3


      front                     
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|    | 2  |  1 |  3 |    |    |    insert 3
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

           front                     
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|    |    |  1 |  3 |  2 |    |    remove and insert 2
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

                front                     
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|    |    |    |  3 |  2 |  1 |    remove and insert 1
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

Sample implementation:

int stack_pop (queue_data *q)
{
  return queue_remove (q);
}

void stack_push (queue_data *q, int val)
{
  int old_count = queue_get_element_count (q), i;

  queue_insert (q, val);
  for (i=0; i<old_count; i++)
  {
    queue_insert (q, queue_remove (q));
  }
}

The easiest (and maybe only) way of doing this is by pushing new elements into the empty queue, and then dequeuing the other and enqeuing into the previously empty queue. With this way the latest is always at the front of the queue. This would be version B, for version A you just reverse the process by dequeuing the elements into the second queue except for the last one.

Step 0:

"Stack"
+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+

Queue A                Queue B
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+

Step 1:

"Stack"
+---+---+---+---+---+
| 1 |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+

Queue A                Queue B
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+
| 1 |   |   |   |   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+

Step 2:

"Stack"
+---+---+---+---+---+
| 2 | 1 |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+

Queue A                Queue B
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |  | 2 | 1 |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+

Step 3:

"Stack"
+---+---+---+---+---+
| 3 | 2 | 1 |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+

Queue A                Queue B
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+
| 3 | 2 | 1 |   |   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+