Container Classes:  Stacks

• The stack provides a dynamically resizing, LIFO access container for like type objects.  Stacks are suitable replacements for custom-developed stacks built from C++ arrays.

• Usage:  #include <stack> and use the std namespace.

• Declaration examples:

  • stack<int>          stackOfIntegers;

  • stack<char>       stackOfCharacters;

  • stack<myClass> stackOfMyClass; // a stack of myClass objects where myClass is any user-defined class

• Common member functions:

  • Operators:  [], =, ==, and !=

  • push(element):  inserts an element onto the top of the stack

  • top():  returns a copy of the element at the top of the stack

  • pop():  removes the top element from the stack

  • size():  reports the number of elements in the stack

  • empty():  returns a bool to indicate the stackis empty (true) or not empty (false)

• Example program: 

  • This program creates a stack to hold a custom class called myC:  stacktest.cpp