Challenge: Evaluate Postfix Expression Using a Stack
Let's try to compute postfix mathematical expressions using stacks!
We'll cover the following
Problem Statement
The usual convention followed in mathematics is the infix expression. Operators like +
and *
appear between the two numbers involved in the calculation:
6 + 3 * 8 - 4
Another convention is the postfix expression where the operators appear after the two numbers involved in the expression. In postfix, the expression written above will be presented as:
6 3 8 * + 4 -
The two digits preceding an operator will be used with that operator
- From the first block of digits
6 3 8
, we pick the last two which are3
and8
. - Reading the operators from left to right, the first one is
*
. The expression now becomes3 * 8
- The next number is
6
while the next operator is+
, so we have6 + 8 * 3
. - The value of this expression is followed by
4
, which is right before-
. Hence we have6 + 8 * 3 - 4
.
Implement a function called evaluatePostFix()
that will compute a postfix expression given to it as a string.
Input
A string containing a postfix mathematic expression. Each digit is considered to be a separate number, i.e., there are no double digit numbers.
Output
A result of the given postfix expression.
Sample Input
exp = "921 * - 8 - 4 +" # 9 - 2 * 1 - 8 + 4
Sample Output
3
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