RPN (notation)

Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators follow their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in which operators precede their operands. It does not need any parentheses as long as each operator has a fixed number of operands. The description "Polish" refers to the nationality of logician Jan Łukasiewicz, who invented Polish notation in 1924.

The reverse Polish scheme was proposed in 1954 by Burks, Warren, and Wright and was independently reinvented by Friedrich L. Bauer and Edsger W. Dijkstra in the early 1960s to reduce computer memory access and utilize the stack to evaluate expressions. The algorithms and notation for this scheme were extended by Australian philosopher and computer scientist Charles Hamblin in the mid-1950s.

During the 1970s and 1980s, reverse Polish notation was well-known to many calculator users, as Hewlett-Packard used it in their pioneering 9100A and HP-35 scientific calculators, the succeeding Voyager series – and also the "cult" HP-12C financial calculator.

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