ringbuffrar

A ring buffer, also known as a circular buffer, is a fixed-size buffer that is treated as if it were connected end-to-end. It's a data structure that uses a single, fixed-size block of memory. When the buffer is full, new data overwrites the oldest data. This behavior makes it useful for applications where data is continuously streamed, such as in audio or video processing, or for implementing producer-consumer scenarios where producers add data and consumers remove it.

The core idea of a ring buffer involves two pointers: a read pointer and a write pointer. The write pointer indicates where the next element will be written, and the read pointer indicates where the next element will be read from. When either pointer reaches the end of the buffer, it wraps around to the beginning. This circular behavior is managed using modulo arithmetic. For example, if the buffer has a size of N, the next position for a pointer at index i would be (i + 1) % N.

Ring buffers offer efficient memory usage because they don't require memory reallocation when data is added or removed. They are particularly well-suited for situations where the amount of data to be stored is unpredictable but the maximum capacity is known. This makes them a common choice in embedded systems, operating system kernels, and networking protocols. The primary advantage is the constant-time complexity for both read and write operations, assuming the buffer is not empty or full respectively.