How to Implement Stack in Java Using Array and Generics?

Last Updated : 08 Jun, 2021

Stack is a linear Data Structure that is based on the LIFO concept (last in first out). Instead of only an Integer Stack, Stack can be of String, Character, or even Float type. There are 4 primary operations in the stack as follows:

push() Method adds element x to the stack.
pop() Method removes the last element of the stack.
top() Method returns the last element of the stack.
empty() Method returns whether the stack is empty or not.

Note: Time Complexity is of order 1 for all operations of the stack

Illustration:

Stack 1

let s = empty stack of Integer type with size 4

Stack 2

push (100) : top = top + 1 and s[top] = 100

Stack 3

push (200) : top = top + 1 and s[top] = 200

Stack 4

 push (300) : top = top + 1 and s[top] = 300

Stack 5

pop ( )  : top = top - 1

Stack 6

push (500) : top = top + 1 and s[top] = 500

Stack 7

push (600) : top = top + 1 and s[top] = 600

Note:

push (700) : top +1 == size of stack : Stack Overflow ! 
// Since top = 3 and size of stack  = 4, no more elements can be pushed

Implementation:

Example

Java

// Java Program to Implement Stack in Java Using Array and
// Generics
 
// Importing input output classes
import java.io.*;
// Importing all utility classes
import java.util.*;
 
// user defined class for generic stack
class stack<T> {
 
    // Empty array list
    ArrayList<T> A;
 
    // Default value of top variable when stack is empty
    int top = -1;
 
    // Variable to store size of array
    int size;
 
    // Constructor of this class
    // To initialize stack
    stack(int size)
    {
        // Storing the value of size into global variable
        this.size = size;
 
        // Creating array of Size = size
        this.A = new ArrayList<T>(size);
    }
 
    // Method 1
    // To push generic element into stack
    void push(T X)
    {
        // Checking if array is full
        if (top + 1 == size) {
 
            // Display message when array is full
            System.out.println("Stack Overflow");
        }
        else {
 
            // Increment top to go to next position
            top = top + 1;
 
            // Over-writing existing element
            if (A.size() > top)
                A.set(top, X);
 
            else
 
                // Creating new element
                A.add(X);
        }
    }
    // Method 2
    // To return topmost element of stack
    T top()
    {
        // If stack is empty
        if (top == -1) {
 
            // Display message when there are no elements in
            // the stack
            System.out.println("Stack Underflow");
 
            return null;
        }
 
        // else elements are present so
        // return the topmost element
        else
            return A.get(top);
    }
 
    // Method 3
    // To delete last element of stack
    void pop()
    {
        // If stack is empty
        if (top == -1) {
 
            // Display message when there are no elements in
            // the stack
            System.out.println("Stack Underflow");
        }
 
        else
 
            // Delete the last element
            // by decrementing the top
            top--;
    }
 
    // Method 4
    // To check if stack is empty or not
    boolean empty() { return top == -1; }
 
    // Method 5
    // To print the stack
    // @Override
    public String toString()
    {
 
        String Ans = "";
 
        for (int i = 0; i < top; i++) {
            Ans += String.valueOf(A.get(i)) + "->";
        }
 
        Ans += String.valueOf(A.get(top));
 
        return Ans;
    }
}
// Main Class
public class GFG {
 
    // main driver method
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
 
        // Integer Stack
 
        // Creating an object of Stack class
        // Declaring objects of Integer type
        stack<Integer> s1 = new stack<>(3);
 
        // Pushing elements to integer stack - s1
 
        // Element 1 - 10
        s1.push(10);
        // Element 2 - 20
        s1.push(20);
        // Element 3 - 30
        s1.push(30);
 
        // Print the stack elements after pushing the
        // elements
        System.out.println(
            "s1 after pushing 10, 20 and 30 :\n" + s1);
 
        // Now, pop from stack s1
        s1.pop();
 
        // Print the stack elements after poping few
        // element/s
        System.out.println("s1 after pop :\n" + s1);
 
        // String Stack
 
        // Creating an object of Stack class
        // Declaring objects of Integer type
        stack<String> s2 = new stack<>(3);
 
        // Pushing elements to string stack - s2
 
        // Element 1 - hello
        s2.push("hello");
        // Element 2 - world
        s2.push("world");
        // Element 3 - java
        s2.push("java");
 
        // Print string stack after pushing above string
        // elements
        System.out.println(
            "\ns2 after pushing 3 elements :\n" + s2);
 
        System.out.println(
            "s2 after pushing 4th element :");
 
        // Pushing another element to above stack
 
        // Element 4 - GFG
        s2.push("GFG");
 
        // Float stack
 
        // Creating an object of Stack class
        // Declaring objects of Integer type
        stack<Float> s3 = new stack<>(2);
 
        // Pushing elements to float stack - s3
 
        // Element 1 - 100.0
        s3.push(100.0f);
        // Element 2 - 200.0
        s3.push(200.0f);
 
        // Print string stack after pushing above float
        // elements
        System.out.println(
            "\ns3 after pushing 2 elements :\n" + s3);
 
        // Print and display top element of stack s3
        System.out.println("top element of s3:\n"
                           + s3.top());
    }
}

Output

s1 after pushing 10, 20 and 30 :
10->20->30
s1 after pop :
10->20

s2 after pushing 3 elements :
hello->world->java
s2 after pushing 4th element :
Stack Overflow

s3 after pushing 2 elements :
100.0->200.0
top element of s3:
200.0

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