Lab 3: Matching Parenthesis

Objective

To be able to utilize stacks in a Java program.

Task

For this lab, you will write a program that checks whether a string of parentheses and brackets is well-formed or not. The strings will be considered well-formed if each opening parenthesis/bracket is matched with exactly one closing parenthesis/bracket.

For example, the following strings are well-formed:

• ([()])
• ()[]()
• (([]([])))

While the following are not:

• )(
• (]
• []]
• [[]
• (()[]([[])]]

This problem is best solved with a stack. The basic idea is to store the opening symbols on a stack. When you see a closing symbol, pop off the next opening symbol and make sure it matches. When done, ensure the stack is empty.

Details

• You can use the Java Stack class for this lab (which happens to be array-based). Make it a stack of characters.
• Read in one String from the user.
• Loop through the characters of the String.
• Follow the algorithm outlined above.
• At the end, print whether the String is well-formed or not.
• Be sure to test different cases!

Submitting

When you're finished, please submit your code for this lab on Canvas.