Priority queues

A priority queue is a data structure that is similar to a queue in which data is retrieved based on the First In, First Out (FIFO) policy, but in the priority queue, priority is attached with the data. In the priority queue, the data is retrieved based on the priority associated with the data elements, the data elements with the highest priority are retrieved before the lower priority data elements, and if two data elements have the same priority, they are retrieved according to the FIFO policy.

We can assign the priority of the data depending upon the application. It is used in many applications, such as CPU scheduling, and many algorithms also rely on priority queues, such as Dijkstra’s shortest-path, A* search, and Huffman codes for data compression.

So, in the priority queue, the item with the highest priority is served first. The priority queue stores the data according to the priority associated with the data, so insertion of an element will be...