Say goodbye to all the confusion that you are having had about the queue and stack. It is not very tough to differentiate between these. These are well known for their significant and peculiar features and functions.
Stack VS Queue
Stack is characterized by the entering and removal of the elements from the same end. However, for the queue, there are different ends for the entry and removal of elements. Queue and stack also differ in terms of direction. The queue is the one that comprises horizontal collections. A stack is the linear one, so it has vertical collections.
Working Principle
The working principle of stack and queue will help much to understand these in a better way. Both of these work on different principles. In the case of the stack, the working principle is LIFO which is the Last In First Out principle. In such a principle, the data or the element inserted at the last gain the opportunity to get released first. There is no following proper order, but the last inserted element leaves first or is known to come out first.
The working principle for the queue is FIFO which is referred to as the First In First Out. It means the element that gets entered or queued first would get the dequeuing or removal first. In this concept, the elements come out in the order of their entering. The lastly entered element cannot come out first but has to wait till all the elements come out, and then it would be eligible to come out.
Operations Performed
The two most frequent operations performed in the case of the stack are push operation and pop operation. When an element inserted into the stack, then the process is known as a push operation. However, the pop operation is the one that is characterized by the deletion of the element. While for the queue, the operations performed differ. These operations are enqueue and dequeue.
Implementation
The queue is much more challenging to implement. It is comparatively tough to implement the queue data structure. However, the scenario is quite the opposite in the case of the stack. Stack is a much more accessible, flexible, and relaxing one for implementation. It is pretty tricky for people to implement a queue. Using the correct technique and sagaciousness can help much to implement a queue.
Number of Pointers: Difference between stack and queue
There is only a single pointer used for the stack that points for the top only. There is always the tracking of the last element that insert into the collection. The pointer keeps on pointing towards the last element, and we call it top. But for the queue, the number of pointers is two. These two pointers occur for the single queue. These pointers use for the rear end and front end.
Variants
Queue comprises multiple significant variables. The most common variants of the queue are double-ended queue, priority queue, and circular queue. However, there is no concept of variants for the stack. It does not comprise any variant at all.
Also read: Difference between char and varchar
