Stack Memory

Stack is a special region in computer memory, that stores temporary variables like local variables, parameters, function calls etc.,

Stack works in last in first out (LIFO) order. Whenever a new local variable initialized inside a function, it is pushed onto the stack, when the function finished execution, all the local variables pushed by that function onto the stack are removed from the stack.

CPU organizes the stack memory for function calls, local variables creation, recursion.

CPU organizes stack memory so efficiently, so reading from and writing to stack variables is very fast.

There is a limit on the size of variables that can be stored on the stack

The default stack size depends on the platform

Example Below are some default stack sizes, These may change from version to version and platform to platform

Platform	Default
Windows IA32	64 KB
Linux IA32	128 KB
Linux x86_64	256 KB
Windows IA64	320 KB
Windows x86_64	128 KB
Linux IA64	1024 KB (1 MB)
Solaris Sparc	512 KB

Example Of Recursion

class Stack{
 static void print(int n){
  if(n==0) return;
  else{
   print(--n);
   System.out.println(n);
  }
 }

 public static void main(String args[]){
  print(4);
 }
}

   
Output

0
1
2
3

Some Points to Remember

1. In java, you can never put an object on stack, only object reference can be stored on stack. Objects always stored in heap

 

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