
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


generic
   type Element_Type is private;
package Fifo is
   type Fifo_Type is private;
   procedure Push(List : in out Fifo_Type; Item : in Element_Type);
   procedure Pop(List : in out Fifo_Type; Item : out Element_Type);
   function Is_Empty(List : Fifo_Type) return Boolean;
   Empty_Error : exception;
private
   type Fifo_Element;
   type Fifo_Ptr is access Fifo_Element;
   type Fifo_Type is record
      Head : Fifo_Ptr := null;
      Tail : Fifo_Ptr := null;
   end record;
   type Fifo_Element is record
      Value : Element_Type;
      Next  : Fifo_Ptr := null;
   end record;
end Fifo;