In Part 1 we discussed the rationale behind building a queue class. We discussed what methods and properties would be needed, and looked at how the entire design process could be simplified by reusing the WeakList class presented in the stack class article. In this part, we'll look at the code for the queue class's three methods and single property as well as how to use the queue class in an ASP page!

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<!--#include file="WeakList.Class.asp"--> <% Class Queue '... The member variable and event handler sections have been omitted for brevity ... '************ PROPERTIES ************* Public Property Get Count() Count = wlList.Count End Property '************************************* '************* METHODS *************** Public Function Enqueue(varItem) wlList.AddHead(varItem) End Function Public Function Dequeue() Dequeue = wlList.RemoveTail() End Function Public Function Peek() Peek = wlList.PeekTail() End Function '************************************* End Class %>

The queue class acts like an ordered list. The first element placed on the queue is the first to be removed. Compare this to the functionality of the stack class, where the first element added was the last element to be removed. A queue is referred to as being FIFO (First In, First Out), while a stack is referred to as being LIFO (Last In, First Out). As with the stack class our queue class's methods and properties are each only one line long, thanks to the WeakList class!

Here, now, is an example of using the Queue class! Note that this example assumes that the queue class is placed within its own file, Queue.Class.asp. (A live demo is available for this example.)

<% Option Explicit %> <!--#include file="Queue.Class.asp"--> <% Dim objQueue Set objQueue = new Queue 'Push some data on the stack objQueue.Enqueue("This ") objQueue.Enqueue("is ") objQueue.Enqueue("a ") objQueue.Enqueue("test! ") 'What is on the top? Response.Write objQueue.Peek() & " is at the head of the queue.<P>" 'Remove all the data displaying it Response.Write "<B>Outputting the queue contents:</B><BR>" While objQueue.Count > 0 Response.Write objQueue.Dequeue() & "<BR>" Wend set objQueue = nothing %>

In the above example a queue instance is created and four words in a sentence are enqueued. The head of the queue is peeked at, and then the entire queue is dequeued and outputted. Note that the output of the four words would be the exact same order that they were inputed: "This is a test!" This is the nature of a queue, or any FIFO data structure.

I hope this article has proved useful. Feel free to cut and paste the queue class into your ASP applications. In a future article I plan on tying together all three data structures that we've examined so far and look at several real-world applications in which these data structures are invaluable.

Until then, happy programming!

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