Question

What are some good applications (examples) of Stacks and Queues; in real life?

Answer 1

Well obviously a stack of dinner plates behaves like a Stack, and a line of customers at a store behaves like a Queue, but I'm sure that's not what you mean. The way I usually see them is in search algorithms, like the order in which one considers potential paths the traveling salesman problem, which certainly is a real-life problem that gets solved using these data structures. I feel I'm probably not answering your question, but at least I can see what answers others give.

Answer 2

Those are example I have thought of already.

But I can't think of many examples of useful stacks, where the stacked elements aren't identical.


A time line of events is like a stack ,
in sci-fi movies etc. when the go back in time and reorder the stack, and various pops turn out differently in the various futures .

Another similar example of a 'real' stack is: undo/redo history, on a text editor/similar

Answer 3

I guess a school bus (single door) is also a bit like a stack, if the kids get on at the back first , and fill, until at the school. Then empty from the front of the bus...

Can you think of some more good ones?

Answer 4

Motor vehicles form queues at traffic lights,

A train's engine and carriages could be changed like a queue,


There must be some more good applications that just aren't so obvious

Answer 5

We can relate stacks to some real life objects and situations, as you can see in the picture of stack of books,
One can add a new book to an existing stack of books only at its top and no where else. Similarly a book cannot be added in the middle of the stack so one has to remove all the books above to add a new book at desired place.

on the other hand,some Real life examples of queue are:
1. Vehicles on toll-tax bridge: The vehicle that comes first to the toll tax booth leaves the booth first. The vehicle that comes last leaves last. Therefore, it follows first-in-first-out (FIFO) strategy of queue.
2. Phone answering system: The person who calls first gets a response first from the phone answering system. The person who calls last gets the response last. Therefore, it follows first-in-first-out (FIFO) strategy of queue.
3. Luggage checking machine: Luggage checking machine checks the luggage first that comes first. Therefore, it follows FIFO principle of queue.

Answer 6

Postal service delivery. It is like a collection of different, linked queues and stacks. So at each point it may be a different type and at times they get combined or split!