Priority queues are an abstract data type that supports these 3 operations:
- – Given an item , insert it into priority queue
- or – Return a pointer to the item whose key value is smallest or largest among all keys in priority queue .
- or – Remove the item whose key value is minimum or maximum from priority queue .
A priority queue that supports Find-Minimum and Delete-Minimum is a min-priority queue, and the definition of max-priority queue follows. Usually, we only support either min or max, not both.
Many algorithms need to process items in a specific order, such as scheduling jobs according to their importance. Priority queue provide more flexibility than simple sorting, since it allows new elements to enter a system at arbitrary intervals. It’s more effective to insert a new job into a priority queue than to re-sort everything on each such arrival.
Dating Example
Many processes are naturally modeled by priority queues.
- Single people maintain a priority queue of potential dating candidates, mentally if not explicitly.
- One’s impression on meeting a new person maps directly to an attractiveness or desirability score, which serves as the key field for inserting this new entry into the “little black book” priority queue data structure.
- Dating is the process of extracting the most desirable person from the data structure (), spending an evening to evaluate them better, and then reinserting them into the priority queue with a possibly revised score.