A stack is a structure where the last element that enters is the first one that leaves.

That’s known as LIFO: Last In, First Out.

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • what a stack is
  • stack traversal
  • search in stacks
  • insertion in stacks
  • basic extraction

Insertion: push

Adding an element to the stack is called push.

Extraction: pop

Removing the top element is called pop.

Traversal

Traversal visits elements from the top down.

Search is done by traversing the stack element by element.

Node example

struct Nodo {
    int dato;
    struct Nodo* siguiente;
};

Summary

  • a stack follows the LIFO rule
  • inserting is called push
  • extracting is called pop
  • it can also be traversed and searched

Final thought

The stack is excellent for understanding that not all structures allow accessing data in any way. Each has its own usage logic.