Can someone explain me the following implementation of Stack using Linked List in Java? The link is this: http://algs4.cs.princeton.edu/13stacks/LinkedStack.java.html And this is the code:
public class LinkedStack<Item> implements Iterable<Item> {
private int N; // size of the stack
private Node first; // top of stack
// helper linked list class
private class Node {
private Item item;
private Node next;
}
/**
* Initializes an empty stack.
*/
public LinkedStack() {
first = null;
N = 0;
assert check();
}
/**
* Is this stack empty?
* @return true if this stack is empty; false otherwise
*/
public boolean isEmpty() {
return first == null;
}
/**
* Returns the number of items in the stack.
* @return the number of items in the stack
*/
public int size() {
return N;
}
/**
* Adds the item to this stack.
* @param item the item to add
*/
public void push(Item item) {
Node oldfirst = first;
first = new Node();
first.item = item;
first.next = oldfirst;
N++;
assert check();
}
/**
* Removes and returns the item most recently added to this stack.
* @return the item most recently added
* @throws java.util.NoSuchElementException if this stack is empty
*/
public Item pop() {
if (isEmpty()) throw new NoSuchElementException("Stack underflow");
Item item = first.item; // save item to return
first = first.next; // delete first node
N--;
assert check();
return item; // return the saved item
}
/**
* Returns (but does not remove) the item most recently added to this stack.
* @return the item most recently added to this stack
* @throws java.util.NoSuchElementException if this stack is empty
*/
public Item peek() {
if (isEmpty()) throw new NoSuchElementException("Stack underflow");
return first.item;
}
/**
* Returns a string representation of this stack.
* @return the sequence of items in the stack in LIFO order, separated by spaces
*/
public String toString() {
StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
for (Item item : this)
s.append(item + " ");
return s.toString();
}
/**
* Returns an iterator to this stack that iterates through the items in LIFO order.
* @return an iterator to this stack that iterates through the items in LIFO order.
*/
public Iterator<Item> iterator() { return new ListIterator(); }
// an iterator, doesn't implement remove() since it's optional
private class ListIterator implements Iterator<Item> {
private Node current = first;
public boolean hasNext() { return current != null; }
public void remove() { throw new UnsupportedOperationException(); }
public Item next() {
if (!hasNext()) throw new NoSuchElementException();
Item item = current.item;
current = current.next;
return item;
}
}
// check internal invariants
private boolean check() {
if (N == 0) {
if (first != null) return false;
}
else if (N == 1) {
if (first == null) return false;
if (first.next != null) return false;
}
else {
if (first.next == null) return false;
}
// check internal consistency of instance variable N
int numberOfNodes = 0;
for (Node x = first; x != null; x = x.next) {
numberOfNodes++;
}
if (numberOfNodes != N) return false;
return true;
}
/**
* Unit tests the <tt>LinkedStack</tt> data type.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
LinkedStack<String> s = new LinkedStack<String>();
while (!StdIn.isEmpty()) {
String item = StdIn.readString();
if (!item.equals("-")) s.push(item);
else if (!s.isEmpty()) StdOut.print(s.pop() + " ");
}
StdOut.println("(" + s.size() + " left on stack)");
}
}
Everything is clear except the need of the check() method. What I don't understand is why after each operation (i.e. pop, peek) we need to check for consistency the number of elements in the stack and the variable N (the size of the stack). Don't we keep these two values consistent all the time? I really don't see what is the use of the check() method?
