Deques

Designing and analyzing double-ended queues.

1. Setup
2. Deque interface
   1. Reference implementation
3. Design and implement
   1. ArrayDeque
   2. LinkedDeque
4. Test
5. Analyze and compare
   1. Asymptotic analysis
   2. Experimental analysis
6. Above and beyond
   1. Flashcards
   2. Spotify queue
   3. Cake layering
   4. Snake
   5. Sliding window maximum

A deque (pronounced “deck”) is an abstract data type representing a double-ended queue. Deques are linear collections (like lists, stacks, and queues) optimized for accessing, adding, and removing elements from both the front and the back. Deques differ from lists in that they do not allow elements to be added or removed from anywhere except for the front or the back. This restriction might make it seem like deques are much less useful than lists. Indeed, any problem you can solve using a deque you can also solve using a list!

But usefulness is not the only metric for determining the quality of a program. Imagine you’re on a team engineering a web browser, and you’re working on addressing a performance problem that has been reported in the browser history feature. When a user visits a web page, the page visit is recorded in the browser history by adding the link and the date of visit to the end of an ArrayList. But users are reporting that the option to clear-out the history of pages that were visited over 3 months is unusually slow.

In this project, we’ll study this performance problem by designing and analyzing different approaches to implement a deque. By the end of this project, students will be able to:

• Design and implement node-based and array-based data structures.
• Analyze and compare runtimes using asymptotic and experimental analysis.

Setup

Additional setup is required for this project. With IntelliJ opened to the Primer project, select the hamburger menu and choose File | New | Project from Version Control and paste the following URL.

https://github.com/kevinlin1/deques.git

Once IntelliJ has loaded the project window, you should be able to run the BrowserHistory class (located in the src folder). If everything is successful, you’ll see these two messages appear in the Run tool window.

ucsd.edu mytritonlink.ucsd.edu datascience.ucsd.edu canvas.ucsd.edu
datascience.ucsd.edu blink.ucsd.edu

Deque interface

Interfaces are a useful way to indicate common methods that will be provided by different implementations (Java classes). For example, List is an interface with implementations such as ArrayList and LinkedList. Deques are like lists but without the capability to add, remove, or get elements from anywhere except for the front or the back. For testing purposes, we included a method to get any element by its index in the deque.

Implementations of Deque must provide the following methods:

void addFirst(E element)

Adds an element of type E to the front of the deque.

void addLast(E element)

Adds an element of type E to the back of the deque.

E get(int index)

Gets the element at the given index, where 0 is the front, 1 is the next element, etc.

boolean isEmpty()

Returns true if deque is empty, false otherwise.

E removeFirst()

Removes and returns the element at the front of the deque.

E removeLast()

Removes and returns the element at the back of the deque.

int size()

Returns the number of elements in the deque.

The interface defines a default method isEmpty that returns size() == 0.

Reference implementation

We’ve provided a reference implementation that will help us evaluate the performance problem with ArrayList. The ArrayListDeque class implements Deque using an ArrayList. The class maintains a single field called list that stores all the elements in the deque, where the i-th element in the deque is always stored at list[i].

Design and implement

Unlike your prior programming courses, the focus of this course is not only to build programs that work according to specifications but also to compare different approaches and evaluate the consequences of our designs. In this project, we’ll compare the ArrayListDeque reference implementation to two other ways to implement the Deque interface: ArrayDeque and LinkedDeque.

ArrayDeque

An array deque is like an ArrayList, but different in that elements aren’t necessarily stored starting at index 0. Instead, their start and end positions are determined by two fields called front and back.¹

To step back in the slides, click on the slides and press the left arrow key or the backspace key. On touchscreens, swipe left to advance and swipe right to step back.

We’ve provided an ArrayDeque class that includes a bug, and a failing test case that causes the bug to emerge. Identify and fix the bug in the ArrayDeque class by changing at least 2 lines of code. Follow the debugging cycle to address the bug.

1. Review ArrayDeque to see how its methods and fields work together to implement Deque.
2. Run the ArrayDequeTests class inside the test/deques folder.
3. Read the test result and review the stack trace (the chain of calls that caused the exception).
4. Review ArrayDeque again, this time focusing on methods most relevant to the failing test. You can open the DequeTests file and drag the tab for a side-by-side view.
5. Based on what you know about the bug, develop a hypothesis for the cause of the problem.

For example, we might hypothesize that the problem is caused by the newIndex variable inside the resize method going outside the bounds of the newData array. Gathering information that can confirm or deny this hypothesis can help us zero-in on the problem, leading us to generate another hypothesis or a potential fix to the bug. Debugging is the process of exploring hypotheses, generating potential fixes, trying them out, and learning more information about the problem until we finally identify the root cause of the bug.

It’s easy to lose track of time and get stuck in a deep hole when debugging. Come to office hours, chat with other students, or return after taking a break!

To develop a hypothesis, we can use the debugger to pause the program at any point in time. Watch this video by one of our TAs, Iris Zhou, to learn more about how to debug your deques in IntelliJ. At each step, compare your thinking to the state of the debugger. If it’s a bit hard to understand the state of the debugger, try switching over to the jGRASP tab while debugging the program.

After you implement a fix that resolves the bug in the confusingTest, make sure that it also works with this alternative sequence of tricky removes. Edit the confusingTest and swap out the final two code segments for the following code.

// Test a tricky sequence of removes
assertEquals(5, deque.removeLast());
assertEquals(4, deque.removeLast());
assertEquals(3, deque.removeLast());
assertEquals(2, deque.removeLast());
assertEquals(1, deque.removeLast());

int actual = deque.removeLast();
assertEquals(0, actual);

Explain your hypothesis for the bug in the ArrayDeque class and the lines of code that you changed to address the hypothesis.

LinkedDeque

Implement the LinkedDeque class with the following additional requirements:

1. The methods addFirst, addLast, removeFirst, and removeLast must run in constant time with respect to the size of the deque. To achieve this, don’t use any iteration or recursion.
2. The amount of memory used by the deque must always be proportional to its size. If a client adds 10,000 elements and then removes 9,999 elements, the resulting deque should use about the same amount of memory as a deque where we only ever added 1 element. To achieve this, remove references to elements that are no longer in the deque.
3. The class is implemented with the help of sentinel nodes according to the following invariants. Use the doubly-linked Node class defined at the bottom of the LinkedDeque.java file.

Invariant

A property of an implementation that must be true before and after any methods. For example, in an ArrayList, the i-th element in the list is always stored at elementData[i].

Sentinel node

A sentinel node is a special node in a linked data structure that doesn’t contain any meaningful data and is always present in the data structure, even when it’s empty. Because we no longer need to check if the current node is null before accessing it, we can simplify the number of conditions that are needed to implement LinkedDeque methods. We recommend using two sentinel nodes to simplify your code, providing access to both the front and the back of the deque.²

A LinkedDeque should always maintain the following invariants before and after each method call:

• The front field always references the front sentinel node, and the back field always references the back sentinel node.
• The sentinel nodes front.prev and back.next always reference null. If size is at least 1, front.next and back.prev reference the first and last regular nodes.
• The nodes in your deque have consistent next and prev fields. If a node curr has a curr.next, we expect curr.next.prev == curr.

Write down what your LinkedDeque will look like on paper before writing code! Drawing more pictures often leads to more successful implementations. Better yet, if you can find a willing partner, have them give some instructions while you attempt to draw everything out. Plan-out and double-check what you want to change before writing any code. The staff solution adds between 4 to 6 lines of code per method and doesn’t introduce any additional if statements.

To assist in debugging, we’ve provided a checkInvariants method that returns a string describing any problems with invariants (at the time the method is called), or null if there are no problems. You can use this by adding debugging print statements to help you verify a hypothesis. But it can be tedious editing code, moving the line around, and then running it again just to call checkInvariants at a different point in time. A better way is by Using Evaluate Expression and Watches with IntelliJ. This allows you to pause the program at any point in time and call checkInvariants().

Lastly, if your first try goes badly, don’t be afraid to scrap your code and start over.

Explain the part of the LinkedDeque class that you’re most proud of programming.

Run all the tests in IntelliJ and show a summary of the results. If the implementations pass all the test cases, explain an interesting bug that you addressed during your programming process. If the implementations do not pass all the test cases, explain what you think could be causing the problem.

Test

Write at least 2 additional test cases for the Deque interface in the DequeTests abstract class.

Explain how your additional test cases improve the test coverage. How do they address scenarios that weren’t already covered by the provided test cases?

Analyze and compare

Asymptotic analysis

In computer science, simpler solutions are typically preferred over more complicated solutions because they’re less likely to contain subtle bugs. ArrayListDeque provided a simple solution to implementing a deque, but exhibited significantly degraded performance on some methods. How does ArrayDeque compare to ArrayListDeque?

Give a best case and worst case asymptotic runtime analysis for each of addFirst, addLast, removeFirst, and removeLast in both ArrayDeque and ArrayListDeque. Explain the runtime of each implementation in a couple sentences.

Experimental analysis

At the bottom of the DequeTests class, you’ll find a nested class called RuntimeExperiments. This nested class defines the code that will be used to evaluate the program’s runtime by measuring how long it takes to run on your computer.

Run the deque tests and open the test results. For each implementation’s RuntimeExperiments, open it to see the average time it takes to make a single call to addLast on a deque that already contains size number of elements.

Copy and paste each result into its own Desmos graphing calculator to plot all the points. For each plot, calculate a line of best fit using Desmos for the time it takes to call addLast. Adjust the line of best fit accordingly based on your asymptotic analysis. For example, if you predicted a constant runtime, choose a constant line of best fit.

Compare your plots and lines of best fit for the addLast method between all three implementations: ArrayListDeque, ArrayDeque, and LinkedDeque. Then, identify an operation that should show a significant difference between ArrayListDeque and the ArrayDeque, and modify the RuntimeExperiments class so that it measures this difference. Compare your new plots and lines of best fit to confirm that ArrayDeque is more efficient than ArrayListDeque for your operation.

Above and beyond

Optionally, apply what you’ve learned by working on these project ideas.

Flashcards

Deques can have very helpful functionality when implementing a deck of flashcards! Here’s an example of how we can use deques to create and practice flashcards!

Spotify queue

A music queue is one application in which a deque may actually be more helpful in bringing more functionality to our queue! Here’s an example of how we can use deques to simulate a Spotify queue.

Cake layering

Cake is an idea for an interactive mobile game where the game play is inspired functionaslity of a deque. The user is presented with a specific flavor of cake (ex. vanilla) and there are flying cake layers below and above the cake. The goal is to construct the largest cake of one type by adding layers from the bottom and top. The cake layers flying progressively fly faster as the cake gets bigger and the game ends once the user accidentally picks a cake layer that has a different flavor from the base.

You may choose any functionality to inspire your cake game. The final product is something you can show potential employers to reveal that you are capable of both creating a mobile game and understanding the functionality of the Deque ADT.

Snake

Snake is a classic game with a simple premise: move the snake to collect apples and to grow; run into a wall or yourself and the game is over. The snake can only move up, down, left, and right one square at a time.

If you represent each unit of the snake’s body as a pair of coordinates, then you can represent the whole snake as a LinkedList of coordinate pairs. In this way, the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) property of a queue is perfect for simulating the movement of a snake. Each time the snake moves, one coordinate pair is removed, and one coordinate pair is added. You can use a Deque instead of a queue to expand on the original rules of the game. Here are some examples of features you might add:

• Eating a rotten apple decreases the length of the snake
• Eating a clock reverses the direction of movement

Here are some resources to help you get started:

Implementing Snake with a Queue (JavaScript)

Video with a good conceptual overview of how a queue can be used to simulate snake.

Snake Game in Java (OOP design concepts)

Article describing the classes, objects, and functions required to implement the game using a queue, along with some starter code in Java.

Sliding window maximum

LeetCode 239. Sliding Window Maximum

You are given an array of integers nums, there is a sliding window of size k which is moving from the very left of the array to the very right. You can only see the k numbers in the window. Each time the sliding window moves right by one position. Return the max sliding window.