Objective-c – How to make and use a Queue in Objective-C

cocoadata-structuresobjective-cqueue

I want to use a queue data structure in my Objective-C program. In C++ I'd use the STL queue. What is the equivalent data structure in Objective-C? How do I push/pop items?

Best Solution

Ben's version is a stack instead of a queue, so i tweaked it a bit:

NSMutableArray+QueueAdditions.h

@interface NSMutableArray (QueueAdditions)
- (id) dequeue;
- (void) enqueue:(id)obj;
@end

NSMutableArray+QueueAdditions.m

@implementation NSMutableArray (QueueAdditions)
// Queues are first-in-first-out, so we remove objects from the head
- (id) dequeue {
    // if ([self count] == 0) return nil; // to avoid raising exception (Quinn)
    id headObject = [self objectAtIndex:0];
    if (headObject != nil) {
        [[headObject retain] autorelease]; // so it isn't dealloc'ed on remove
        [self removeObjectAtIndex:0];
    }
    return headObject;
}

// Add to the tail of the queue (no one likes it when people cut in line!)
- (void) enqueue:(id)anObject {
    [self addObject:anObject];
    //this method automatically adds to the end of the array
}
@end

Just import the .h file wherever you want to use your new methods, and call them like you would any other NSMutableArray methods.

Good luck and Keep on Coding!

Related Solutions

How to implement a queue using two stacks

Keep 2 stacks, let's call them inbox and outbox.

Enqueue:

Push the new element onto inbox

Dequeue:

If outbox is empty, refill it by popping each element from inbox and pushing it onto outbox
Pop and return the top element from outbox

Using this method, each element will be in each stack exactly once - meaning each element will be pushed twice and popped twice, giving amortized constant time operations.

Here's an implementation in Java:

public class Queue<E>
{

    private Stack<E> inbox = new Stack<E>();
    private Stack<E> outbox = new Stack<E>();

    public void queue(E item) {
        inbox.push(item);
    }

    public E dequeue() {
        if (outbox.isEmpty()) {
            while (!inbox.isEmpty()) {
               outbox.push(inbox.pop());
            }
        }
        return outbox.pop();
    }

}

Objective-c – Generating random numbers in Objective-C

You should use the arc4random_uniform() function. It uses a superior algorithm to rand. You don't even need to set a seed.

#include <stdlib.h>
// ...
// ...
int r = arc4random_uniform(74);

The arc4random man page:

NAME
     arc4random, arc4random_stir, arc4random_addrandom -- arc4 random number generator

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <stdlib.h>

     u_int32_t
     arc4random(void);

     void
     arc4random_stir(void);

     void
     arc4random_addrandom(unsigned char *dat, int datlen);

DESCRIPTION
     The arc4random() function uses the key stream generator employed by the arc4 cipher, which uses 8*8 8
     bit S-Boxes.  The S-Boxes can be in about (2**1700) states.  The arc4random() function returns pseudo-
     random numbers in the range of 0 to (2**32)-1, and therefore has twice the range of rand(3) and
     random(3).

     The arc4random_stir() function reads data from /dev/urandom and uses it to permute the S-Boxes via
     arc4random_addrandom().

     There is no need to call arc4random_stir() before using arc4random(), since arc4random() automatically
     initializes itself.

EXAMPLES
     The following produces a drop-in replacement for the traditional rand() and random() functions using
     arc4random():

           #define foo4random() (arc4random() % ((unsigned)RAND_MAX + 1))

Best Solution

Related Solutions

How to implement a queue using two stacks

Objective-c – Generating random numbers in Objective-C

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