BATTLE OF THE FLEXES

 Stacks Vs. Queues

To be or not to be, is the most pressing question when choosing a supporting data infrastructure as an accompanying module within your programming tasks.

And while both STACKS and QUEUES, certainly have their advantages and shortcomings, here are a few of OMNITEKK'S tips and tricks for utilizing either of them in your IT projects.

A few questions should be answered - namely

What Type Of Application Are You Designing?

While with a few tweaks here or there, either STACK or QUEUE data structure accompanyments can be used as possible solutions in your project's processing aim, each structure has its very own usage strengths.

For instance, we might use with efficiency, STACKS as a means of balancing symbols in infix to prefix conversions or vice versa, function call implementations, or in finding both spans or maxims within our projects or application. STACKS might even be used in page visited histories of web browser tasks.  

However, they aren't well suited to make the cut on auxiliary tasks such as in simulating first come first serve applications like job scheduling, ticket counter scenarios, or even the dreadful asynchronous data processes, tasked by most jaugernauts in IT, who use QUEUE data structures in such an aim.

Which Order Does Your Application Retrieve And Store Data?

STACK operation processes are used as LAST-IN-FIRST-OUT, or LIFO ( pronounced lye - fo) data structures by creating STACKS for processing, utilizing the infamous PUSH and POP operations, for such data tasks. 

So if your project or program is designed to retrieve the last file or process, or even program addresses stored within your coding tasks in reverse input order, then STACKS might serve you well to use.

However, if your application requires that information be processed in the same order placed, then QUEUES might prove best to use, as these are FIRST-IN-FIRST-OUT or FIFO (pronounced fy - fo) data structures, utilizing the ENQUEUE and DEQUEUE operations to store, handle and process information in sequential or priority of order.

And lastly, but certainly not the least - 

What Are The Performance Costs?

While both STACKS and QUEUES each have similar performance application processing times, they each of them present their unique sets of difficulties, given the program structure, along with all encompassing application factors as well.

Considerations such as the type of data being processed, or contingency of other nominal application factors, should all be factored within your program run times - which, while they mightn't necessarily increase the data structural run times for your application per say, they might certainly impact your overall program design within the culmination of context used within your application.

So do be sure to consider these facets when structuring your application, in determining whether to use either the LIFO structure of STACK operations, or those of QUEUES or FIFO  structures, when developing your next IT project.

And while you do, here's a few resources to help you along the way.

ALGS4.CS.PRINCETON.EDU/13STACKS

WEB.STANFORD.EDU/CLASS/ARCHIVE/CS/CS106B.1226/LECTURES/05-STACK-QUEUE/

And as always, until our next it adventure, my friends, OMNITEKK says be well.