How to remove a stack item which is not on the top

Question

Unfortunately an item can only be removed from the stack by "pop". The stack has no "remove" method or something similar, but I have a stack (yes I need a stack!) from which I need to remove some elements between.

Is there a trick to do this?

Answer 1

hmmmm...... I agree with the previous two answers but if you are looking to hack your way just pop and save all elements until you get to the one you want, and the re-push them all

Yes is ugly, badly performing, probably weird code that will need a long comment explaining why, but you could do it....

Answer 2

   Stack temp = new Stack();
   object x, y;
   While ((x = myStack.Pop()) != ObjectImSearchingFor)
       temp.Push(x);
   object found = x;
   While ((y = temp.Pop()) != null)
      myStack.Push(y);

Answer 3

Consider using different container. Maybe a LinkedList. Then you can use

AddFirst
AddLast
RemoveLast
RemoveFirst

just like pop/push from stack and you can use

Remove

to remove any node from the middle of the list

Answer 4

If you need to remove items that aren't on the top, then you need something other than a stack.

Try making your own implementation of a stack from a List. Then you get to implement your own push and pop functions (add & remove on the list), and your own special PopFromTheMiddle function.

For example

public class ItsAlmostAStack<T>
{
    private List<T> items = new List<T>();

    public void Push(T item)
    {
        items.Add(item);
    }
    public T Pop()
    {
        if (items.Count > 0)
        {
            T temp = items[items.Count - 1];
            items.RemoveAt(items.Count - 1);
            return temp;
        }
        else
            return default(T);
    }
    public void Remove(int itemAtPosition)
    {
        items.RemoveAt(itemAtPosition);
    }
}

Answer 5

Perhaps an extension method would work, although, I suspect that a different data structure entirely is really needed.

public static T Remove<T>( this Stack<T> stack, T element )
{
     T obj = stack.Pop();
     if (obj.Equals(element))
     {
         return obj;
     }
     else
     {
        T toReturn = stack.Remove( element );
        stack.Push(obj);
        return toReturn;
     }
}

Answer 6

I used a list and added some extension methods, eg,

public static IThing Pop(this List<IThing> list)
{
  if (list == null || list.Count == 0) return default(IThing);

  // get last item to return
  var thing = list[list.Count - 1];
  // remove last item
  list.RemoveAt(list.Count-1);

  return thing;
}

public static IThing Peek(this List<IThing> list)
{
  if (list == null || list.Count == 0) return default(IThing);

  // get last item to return
  return list[list.Count - 1];
}

public static void Remove(this List<IThing> list, IThing thing)
{
  if (list == null || list.Count == 0) return;
  if (!list.Contains(thing)) return;

  list.Remove(thing); // only removes the first it finds
}

public static void Insert(this List<IThing> list, int index, IThing thing)
{
  if (list == null || index > list.Count || index < 0) return;

  list.Insert(index, thing);
}