Prioriteedijärjekordadega

Prioriteedijärjekordadega, often translated as priority queues, are an abstract data type similar to a regular queue or stack but where each element has a "priority" associated with it. Elements are served based on their priority. If two elements have the same priority, they are served according to their order in the queue.

The most common operations for a priority queue include inserting an element with a given priority and removing the element with the highest (or lowest) priority. Some implementations also support operations like peeking at the highest priority element without removing it, or changing the priority of an existing element.

Priority queues are widely used in computer science. A classic example is in operating systems for scheduling tasks. Processes with higher priority are given more CPU time. They are also fundamental to several important algorithms, such as Dijkstra's algorithm for finding the shortest path in a graph and Prim's algorithm for finding a minimum spanning tree.

Implementations of priority queues typically use underlying data structures like heaps, binary search trees, or even simple sorted arrays. Heaps are a very common and efficient choice, offering logarithmic time complexity for insertion and deletion of the highest priority element. The choice of implementation depends on the specific performance requirements of the application.