Lists

Abstract

Queues and stacks are sequential abstract data types with their specified access limits. All stack access is limited to one end of the stack, the top. With queues, objects enter the structure from one end, called the rear, and leave from the other end, called the front. Access to an arbitrary object in a structure is said to beindependentimmediate,orrandom if the time required to access the object does not depend on either the location of the object within the structure or which object within the structure had been previously accessed. A structure hasindependent access if every object in the structure may be accessed within a constant period of time. Independent access is frequently referred to asrandom access. Arrays are the classical example of structures with independent, or random, access. Access to any object in an array does not depend on access to any other object in the array.