In the preceding section we saw that a stack comprises a pile of objects that can be accessed only at one end--the top. In this section we examine a similar data structure called a single-ended queue . Whereas in a stack we add and remove elements at the same end of the pile, in a single-ended queue we add elements at one end and remove them from the other. Since it is always the first item to be put into the queue that is the first item to be removed, a queue is a first-in, first-out or FIFO data structure. Figure illustrates the basic queue operations.
Figure: Basic queue operations.
Program defines the Queue interface. The Queue interface extends the Container interface defined in Program . Hence, comprises all the methods inherited from Container plus the three methods, getHead, enqueue, and dequeue. As we did with stacks, we examine two queue implementations--an array-based one and a linked-list one.