Feature #2: Evaluate the Arithmetic Expression
Explore how to evaluate mathematical expressions consisting of integers, plus and minus operators, and parentheses in C++. This lesson guides you through using stacks to handle operator precedence and expression evaluation accurately. You will learn to build a module that processes expressions step-by-step following mathematical rules and proper handling of parentheses, preparing you for coding interviews involving expression parsing.
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Description
For this feature, you have to create a module for evaluating mathematical expressions. The expressions are already extracted from the source code and are available as strings. Your job is to compute the result and return it. The expressions are subject to the following constraints:
- The numbers can only be integers.
- For simplicity’s sake, the expressions can only contain
+and-operators. - The expression can contain
()parentheses. - The expression has already been verified as being valid.
Let’s look at an example to understand the feature specifications. Suppose the input expression is "5-(3+4)". Your program has to evaluate it following mathematical rules. First, the expression inside parentheses is solved and then the rest. The result will be the integer value -2.
Solution
This problem is a great candidate for a stack use case. But first, we need to ...