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Working With Stack In C#

Introduction

 
A stack is a LIFO (last in first out) data structure. Think of stack as a collection of items where anything you insert in a stack will be placed at the top and if you need to remove something, it will be removed from the top. A stack of plates or a book stack are two common examples of a stack.
 
In this tutorial, we will learn how to use the Stack<> class in C#. We will see how to create a Stack and how to use its Push, Pop, and other methods.
 
The Stack<T> is a collection that is defined in the System.Collection.Generic namespace where T specified the type of elements in the stack. 
 

Create a Stack

 
The Stack<> class constructors look like the following: 

Working On Stack Using C#

Count items in a stack


The Count property of the Stack class returns the number of elements in a stack. The following code example creates three stacks using different methods and use the Count property to return the number of items in these stacks. 
  1. namespace Stack {  
  2.     classProgram {  
  3.         staticvoid Main(string[] args) {  
  4.             Stack < string > stack1 = newStack < string > ();  
  5.             string[] str = {  
  6.                 "MCA",  
  7.                 "BCA",  
  8.                 "BBA",  
  9.                 "MBA",  
  10.                 "MTech"  
  11.             };  
  12.             Stack < string > stack2 = newStack < string > (str);  
  13.             Stack < string > stack3 = newStack < string > (10);  
  14.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack1 are:" + stack1.Count());  
  15.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack2 are:" + stack2.Count());  
  16.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack3 are:" + stack3.Count());  
  17.         }  
  18.     }  
  19. }  

The output looks like the following:

Working On Stack Using C#
 

Add items to a stack in C# 

The Push() method is used to add a (push) element to the stack. The item is added to the top of the stack. 

The following code example shows how to use the Push method to add items to a stack.

  1. namespace Stack {  
  2.     classProgram {  
  3.         staticvoid Main(string[] args) {  
  4.             Stack < string > stack1 = newStack < string > ();  
  5.             string[] str = {  
  6.                 "MCA",  
  7.                 "BCA",  
  8.                 "BBA",  
  9.                 "MBA",  
  10.                 "MTech"  
  11.             };  
  12.             Stack < string > stack2 = newStack < string > (str);  
  13.             Stack < string > stack3 = newStack < string > (10);  
  14.             stack1.Push("************");  
  15.             stack1.Push("MCA");  
  16.             stack1.Push("MBA");  
  17.             stack1.Push("BCA");  
  18.             stack1.Push("BBA");  
  19.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  20.             stack1.Push("**Courses**");  
  21.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  22.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack1 are as:");  
  23.             foreach(string s in stack1) {  
  24.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  25.             }  
  26.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack2 are as:");  
  27.             foreach(string s in stack2) {  
  28.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  29.             }  
  30.             stack3.Push("one");  
  31.             stack3.Push("Two");  
  32.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack3 are as:");  
  33.             foreach(string s in stack3) {  
  34.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  35.             }  
  36.         }  
  37.     }  
  38. }  

The output looks like the following:

Working On Stack Using C#
 

Remove items from a Stack in C#

 
The Pop() method is used to remove elements from a stack. The Pop() method removes the top most item from the stack.
 
The following code example uses the Pop() method three times to remove 3 elements. 
  1. namespace Stack {  
  2.     classProgram {  
  3.         staticvoid Main(string[] args) {  
  4.             Stack < string > stack1 = newStack < string > ();  
  5.             stack1.Push("************");  
  6.             stack1.Push("MCA");  
  7.             stack1.Push("MBA");  
  8.             stack1.Push("BCA");  
  9.             stack1.Push("BBA");  
  10.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  11.             stack1.Push("**Courses**");  
  12.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  13.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack1 are as:");  
  14.             foreach(string s in stack1) {  
  15.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  16.             }  
  17.             //For remove/or pop the element pop() method is used  
  18.             stack1.Pop();  
  19.             stack1.Pop();  
  20.             stack1.Pop();  
  21.             Console.WriteLine("After removal/or pop the element the stack is as:");  
  22.             //the element that inserted in last is remove firstly.  
  23.             foreach(string s in stack1) {  
  24.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  25.             }  
  26.         }  
  27.     }  
  28. }  

The output looks like the following:

Working On Stack Using C#
 

Get items from a stack in C#

 
The Peek() method returns the topmost element of a Stack<T> without removing it. The following code snippet reads stack items and displays the content.

  1. namespace Stack {  
  2.     classProgram {  
  3.         staticvoid Main(string[] args) {  
  4.             Stack < string > stack1 = newStack < string > ();  
  5.             stack1.Push("************");  
  6.             stack1.Push("MCA");  
  7.             stack1.Push("MBA");  
  8.             stack1.Push("BCA");  
  9.             stack1.Push("BBA");  
  10.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  11.             stack1.Push("**Courses**");  
  12.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  13.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack1 are as:");  
  14.             foreach(string s in stack1) {  
  15.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  16.             }  
  17.             //The first peek element is find by peek() method  
  18.             //peek method gives the element that located at the top of the stack  
  19.             Console.WriteLine("The peek element is:" + stack1.Peek());  
  20.             stack1.Pop();  
  21.             Console.WriteLine("The nest peek element is:" + stack1.Peek());  
  22.         }  
  23.     }  
  24. }  

The output looks like the following:

Working On Stack Using C#
 

C# Stack Code Example

 
Here are some code examples of using the Stack class and its methods in C#. The Contain() method determines and returns true if an element is found in a stack. The following example uses the Contain method.

  1. namespace Stack {  
  2.     classProgram {  
  3.         staticvoid Main(string[] args) {  
  4.             Stack < string > stack1 = newStack < string > ();  
  5.             stack1.Push("************");  
  6.             stack1.Push("MCA");  
  7.             stack1.Push("MBA");  
  8.             stack1.Push("BCA");  
  9.             stack1.Push("BBA");  
  10.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  11.             stack1.Push("**Courses**");  
  12.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  13.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack1 are as:");  
  14.             foreach(string s in stack1) {  
  15.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  16.             }  
  17.             Console.WriteLine("The element MCA contain in the stack " + stack1.Contains("MCA"));  
  18.             Console.WriteLine("The element BCA contain in the stack " + stack1.Contains("BCA"));  
  19.             Console.WriteLine("The element MTech contain in the stack " + stack1.Contains("MTech"));  
  20.         }  
  21.     }  
  22. }  

The output looks like the following:

Working On Stack Using C#

The Clear() method of Stack<T> removes all elements from a stack. The following code snippet uses the Clear() method and removes all items in a stack.

  1. namespace Stack {  
  2.     classProgram {  
  3.         staticvoid Main(string[] args) {  
  4.             Stack < string > stack1 = newStack < string > ();  
  5.             stack1.Push("************");  
  6.             stack1.Push("MCA");  
  7.             stack1.Push("MBA");  
  8.             stack1.Push("BCA");  
  9.             stack1.Push("BBA");  
  10.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  11.             stack1.Push("**Courses**");  
  12.             stack1.Push("***********");  
  13.             Console.WriteLine("The element in the stack are:" + stack1.Count());  
  14.             Console.WriteLine("The elements in the stack1 are as:");  
  15.             foreach(string s in stack1) {  
  16.                 Console.WriteLine(s);  
  17.             }  
  18.             //clear() method remove/or clear all the elements from the stack  
  19.             stack1.Clear();  
  20.             Console.WriteLine("After apply the clear method the elements in the stack are:" + stack1.Count());  
  21.         }  
  22.     }  
  23. }  

The output looks like the following:

Working On Stack Using C#
 

Summary

 
In this article I explained the concept of a stack and how to use the Stack<T> class to implement a stack in C#. 
 


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