interactive-coding-challenges/stacks_queues/stack_min/stack_min_solution.ipynb

This notebook was prepared by Donne Martin. Source and license info is on GitHub.

Solution Notebook

Problem: Implement a stack with push, pop, and min methods running O(1) time.

• Constraints
• Test Cases
• Algorithm
• Code
• Unit Test

Constraints

• Can we assume this is a stack of ints?
  • Yes
• Can we assume the input values for push are valid?
  • Yes
• If we call this function on an empty stack, can we return sys.maxsize?
  • Yes
• Can we assume we already have a stack class that can be used for this problem?
  • Yes
• Can we assume this fits memory?
  • Yes

Test Cases

• Push/pop on empty stack
• Push/pop on non-empty stack
• Min on empty stack
• Min on non-tempty stack

Algorithm

We'll use a second stack to keep track of the minimum values.

Min

• If the second stack is empty, return an error code (max int value)
• Else, return the top of the stack, without popping it

Complexity:

• Time: O(1)
• Space: O(1)

Push

• Push the data
• If the data is less than min
  • Push data to second stack

Complexity:

• Time: O(1)
• Space: O(1)

Pop

• Pop the data
• If the data is equal to min
  • Pop the top of the second stack
• Return the data

Complexity:

• Time: O(1)
• Space: O(1)

Code

In [1]:

%run ../stack/stack.py

In [2]:

import sys


class StackMin(Stack):

    def __init__(self, top=None):
        super(StackMin, self).__init__(top)
        self.stack_of_mins = Stack()

    def minimum(self):
        if self.stack_of_mins.top is None:
            return sys.maxsize
        else:
            return self.stack_of_mins.peek()

    def push(self, data):
        super(StackMin, self).push(data)
        if data < self.minimum():
            self.stack_of_mins.push(data)

    def pop(self):
        data = super(StackMin, self).pop()
        if data == self.minimum():
            self.stack_of_mins.pop()
        return data

Unit Test

In [3]:

%%writefile test_stack_min.py
from nose.tools import assert_equal


class TestStackMin(object):

    def test_stack_min(self):
        print('Test: Push on empty stack, non-empty stack')
        stack = StackMin()
        stack.push(5)
        assert_equal(stack.peek(), 5)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 5)
        stack.push(1)
        assert_equal(stack.peek(), 1)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 1)
        stack.push(3)
        assert_equal(stack.peek(), 3)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 1)
        stack.push(0)
        assert_equal(stack.peek(), 0)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 0)

        print('Test: Pop on non-empty stack')
        assert_equal(stack.pop(), 0)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 1)
        assert_equal(stack.pop(), 3)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 1)
        assert_equal(stack.pop(), 1)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), 5)
        assert_equal(stack.pop(), 5)
        assert_equal(stack.minimum(), sys.maxsize)

        print('Test: Pop empty stack')
        assert_equal(stack.pop(), None)

        print('Success: test_stack_min')


def main():
    test = TestStackMin()
    test.test_stack_min()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Overwriting test_stack_min.py

In [4]:

run -i test_stack_min.py

Test: Push on empty stack, non-empty stack
Test: Pop on non-empty stack
Test: Pop empty stack
Success: test_stack_min