Timoty J Rolfe-CSCD 326 Data Structures IInfix Expressions.pptVIP

CSCD 326 Data Structures IInfix Expressions Infix Expressions Binary operators appear between operands: W - X / Y - Z Order of evaluation is determined by: precedence rules parentheses association (L to R or R to L) Direct evaluation is very difficult for a program reading left to right. Postfix Expressions Binary operators appear after both operands: X + Y in postfix form is: X Y + Order of operations is completely determined by the expression no parentheses or precedence required for example: A * B - C becomes A B * C - Postfix Expression Evaluation Consider: A B * C - When evaluating the postfix expression the result of A B * becomes the first operand for C - A * ( B - C ) becomes A B C - * Here the result of B C - becomes the second operand for A operand - Postfix Evaluation with a Stack Evaluation of postfix expressions makes use of an operand stack. Algorithm Pseudocode: push all operands on stack until an operator is encountered when an operator is encountered pop the last two operands off the stack and apply the operation - order of operands is important push the result of the operation back on the stack to be used as an operand later when end of expression is reached one operand remains on the stack - it is the final result Infix to Postfix Conversion Since postfix expressions are easily evaluated, the easiest way to evaluate infix is to convert from infix to postfix and then evaluate. This conversion uses an operator stack since low precedence operators must be saved and applied after high precedence ones. Conversion Algorithm stack.push(EOL marker) //optional – can check for empty stack for (each character ch in the infix expression) { switch (ch) { case operand: //append ch to output postfix expression postfixExpr = postfixExpr + ch; case (: stack.push(ch); // push ch onto operator stack case ): while (top of stack is not ( ) {