9. Heaps
The chapter focuses on the concept of heaps as a data structure for implementing priority queues. It explains how heaps facilitate efficient operations for inserting and deleting elements based on their priority, ensuring both operations can be executed in logarithmic time. The properties of valid heaps and their structures are also discussed, providing examples and guidelines for maintaining the heap characteristics.
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What we have learnt
- Heaps are specialized binary trees optimized for priority queue operations.
- The structure of a heap is defined such that elements must be inserted in a specific order, filling left to right at each level.
- The heap property requires that each parent node must be greater than or equal to its children in a max heap.
Key Concepts
- -- Priority Queue
- A data structure where each element has a priority, allowing for efficient retrieval of the highest priority item.
- -- Heap
- A specialized binary tree that maintains a specific structure and order, allowing quick access to the maximum or minimum elements.
- -- Max Heap Property
- In a max heap, for any given node, its value must be greater than or equal to the values of its children.
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