Question

Describe two operations that all stacks perform.

Short answer

Question: What are the two essential operations that all stacks perform, and briefly describe their steps. Answer: The two essential operations that all stacks perform are the push and pop operations. The push operation adds an element to the top of the stack by checking if there is enough space, incrementing the top pointer, and placing the element there. The pop operation removes an element from the top of the stack by checking if it's not empty, retrieving the element, decrementing the top pointer, and returning the removed element.

Step-by-step solution

1. Push Operation

In the push operation, we add an element to the top of the stack. The procedure typically involves the following steps: 1. Check if the stack has enough space to accommodate the new element (verify if it's not full). If there's no space, report a "Stack Overflow" error. 2. Increment the top pointer (or index) by 1. 3. Place the new element at the position pointed by the top pointer (or index).

2. Pop Operation

In the pop operation, we remove the element from the top of the stack. The procedure involves these main steps: 1. Check if there are any elements in the stack (verify if it's not empty). If it's empty, report a "Stack Underflow" error. 2. Retrieve the element at the position pointed by the top pointer (or index). Save this value to be returned later. 3. Decrement the top pointer (or index) by 1. 4. Return the saved value to the user, indicating that it has been removed from the stack.