Book Image

Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python - Third Edition

By : Dr. Basant Agarwal
Book Image

Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python - Third Edition

By: Dr. Basant Agarwal

Overview of this book

Choosing the right data structure is pivotal to optimizing the performance and scalability of applications. This new edition of Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python will expand your understanding of key structures, including stacks, queues, and lists, and also show you how to apply priority queues and heaps in applications. You’ll learn how to analyze and compare Python algorithms, and understand which algorithms should be used for a problem based on running time and computational complexity. You will also become confident organizing your code in a manageable, consistent, and scalable way, which will boost your productivity as a Python developer. By the end of this Python book, you’ll be able to manipulate the most important data structures and algorithms to more efficiently store, organize, and access data in your applications.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
14
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15
Index

Heaps and Priority Queues

A heap data structure is a tree-based data structure in which each node of the tree has a specific relationship with other nodes, and they are stored in a specific order. Depending upon the specific order of the nodes in the tree, heaps can be of different types, such as a min heap and a max heap.

A priority queue is an important data structure that is similar to the queue and stack data structures that stores data along with the priority associated with them. In this, the data is served according to the priority. Priority queues can be implemented using an array, linked list, and trees; however, they are often implemented using a heap as it is very efficient.

In this chapter, we will learn the following:

  • The concept of the heap data structure and different operations on it
  • Understanding the concept of the priority queue and its implementation using Python