ringbufer

A ring buffer, also known as a circular buffer, is a data structure that uses a single, fixed-size buffer as if it were connected end-to-end. This structure lends itself easily to buffering data streams. The buffer is implemented as an array or other fixed-size data structure. When the buffer is full, the oldest data is overwritten by the newest data.

Two pointers, typically called the head and the tail, are used to manage the ring buffer. The head pointer indicates the position where the next element will be read from, and the tail pointer indicates the position where the next element will be written to. When either pointer reaches the end of the buffer, it wraps around to the beginning.

Ring buffers are commonly used in scenarios where data is continuously produced and consumed, such as in network communication, audio and video processing, and operating system kernel tasks. They are efficient because they avoid the need for dynamic memory allocation and deallocation, and they allow for constant-time insertion and deletion of elements, assuming the buffer is not full or empty.

The main advantage of a ring buffer is its ability to efficiently manage a stream of data of a fixed size. It can be used to implement queues, first-in, first-out (FIFO) data structures, where elements are added at one end and removed from the other. The circular nature prevents the buffer from growing indefinitely, making it suitable for systems with limited memory.