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Overview
Priority Queue is more specilized data structure than Queue. Like ordinary queue, priority queue has same method but with a major difference. In Priority queue items are ordered by key value so that item with the lowest value of key is at front and item with the highest value of key is at rear or vice versa. So we”re assigned priority to item based on its key value. Lower the value, higher the priority. Following are the principal methods of a Priority Queue.
Basic Operations
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insert / enqueue − add an item to the rear of the queue.
-
remove / dequeue − remove an item from the front of the queue.
Priority Queue Representation
We”re going to implement Queue using array in this article. There is few more operations supported by queue which are following.
-
Peek − get the element at front of the queue.
-
isFull − check if queue is full.
-
isEmpty − check if queue is empty.
Insert / Enqueue Operation
Whenever an element is inserted into queue, priority queue inserts the item according to its order. Here we”re assuming that data with high value has low priority.
void insert(int data){
int i =0;
if(!isFull()){
// if queue is empty, insert the data
if(itemCount == 0){
intArray[itemCount++] = data;
} else {
// start from the right end of the queue
for(i = itemCount - 1; i >= 0; i-- ){
// if data is larger, shift existing item to right end
if(data > intArray[i]){
intArray[i+1] = intArray[i];
} else {
break;
}
}
// insert the data
intArray[i+1] = data;
itemCount++;
}
}
}
Remove / Dequeue Operation
Whenever an element is to be removed from queue, queue get the element using item count. Once element is removed. Item count is reduced by one.
int removeData(){
return intArray[--itemCount];
}
Example
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#define MAX 6
int intArray[MAX];
int itemCount = 0;
int peek(){
return intArray[itemCount - 1];
}
bool isEmpty(){
return itemCount == 0;
}
bool isFull(){
return itemCount == MAX;
}
int size(){
return itemCount;
}
void insert(int data){
int i =0;
if(!isFull()){
// if queue is empty, insert the data
if(itemCount == 0){
intArray[itemCount++] = data;
} else {
// start from the right end of the queue
for(i = itemCount - 1; i >= 0; i-- ){
// if data is larger, shift existing item to right end
if(data > intArray[i]){
intArray[i+1] = intArray[i];
} else {
break;
}
}
// insert the data
intArray[i+1] = data;
itemCount++;
}
}
}
int removeData(){
return intArray[--itemCount];
}
int main() {
/* insert 5 items */
insert(3);
insert(5);
insert(9);
insert(1);
insert(12);
// ------------------
// index : 0 1 2 3 4
// ------------------
// queue : 12 9 5 3 1
insert(15);
// ---------------------
// index : 0 1 2 3 4 5
// ---------------------
// queue : 15 12 9 5 3 1
if(isFull()){
printf("Queue is full!n");
}
// remove one item
int num = removeData();
printf("Element removed: %dn",num);
// ---------------------
// index : 0 1 2 3 4
// ---------------------
// queue : 15 12 9 5 3
// insert more items
insert(16);
// ----------------------
// index : 0 1 2 3 4 5
// ----------------------
// queue : 16 15 12 9 5 3
// As queue is full, elements will not be inserted.
insert(17);
insert(18);
// ----------------------
// index : 0 1 2 3 4 5
// ----------------------
// queue : 16 15 12 9 5 3
printf("Element at front: %dn",peek());
printf("----------------------n");
printf("index : 5 4 3 2 1 0n");
printf("----------------------n");
printf("Queue: ");
while(!isEmpty()){
int n = removeData();
printf("%d ",n);
}
}
Output
If we compile and run the above program then it would produce following output −
Queue is full! Element removed: 1 Element at front: 3 ---------------------- index : 5 4 3 2 1 0 ---------------------- Queue: 3 5 9 12 15 16
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