
Data Structure

This illustrates a data structure, a means of storing data within a program.

You may see other such structures in the Data Structures category.
 Illustration of FIFO behavior
Task

Implement a FIFO queue.

Elements are added at one side and popped from the other in the order of insertion.



Operations:

   push   (aka enqueue)    - add element
   pop     (aka dequeue)    - pop first element
   empty                             - return truth value when empty


Errors:

   handle the error of trying to pop from an empty queue (behavior depends on the language and platform)


See

   Queue/Usage   for the built-in FIFO or queue of your language or standard library.


See also

 Array
 Associative array: Creation, Iteration
 Collections
 Compound data type
 Doubly-linked list: Definition, Element definition, Element insertion, List Traversal, Element Removal
 Linked list
 Queue: Definition, Usage
 Set
 Singly-linked list: Element definition, Element insertion, List Traversal, Element Removal
 Stack


empty <- function() length(l) == 0
push <- function(x) 
{
   l <<- c(l, list(x))
   print(l)
   invisible()
}
pop <- function() 
{
   if(empty()) stop("can't pop from an empty list")
   l[[1]] <<- NULL
   print(l)
   invisible()
}
l <- list() 
empty()
# [1] TRUE
push(3)
# [[1]]
# [1] 3
push("abc")
# [[1]]
# [1] 3
# [[2]]
# [1] "abc"
push(matrix(1:6, nrow=2))
# [[1]]
# [1] 3
# [[2]]
# [1] "abc"
# [[3]]
#      [,1] [,2] [,3]
# [1,]    1    3    5
# [2,]    2    4    6
empty()
# [1] FALSE
pop()
# [[1]]
# [1] 3
# [[2]]
# [1] "abc"
pop()
# [[1]]
# [1] 3
pop()
# list()
pop()
# Error in pop() : can't pop from an empty list