Min-heap
A min-heap is a heap-ordered tree in which each parent has no greater priority than its children, so a minimum-priority element is at the root.
Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures
A min-heap is a heap in which each parent has priority at most as high as that of its children, placing a minimum-priority element at the root.
- How it is used
- Uses smallest-priority retrieval for priority queues, top-k selection, and Huffman tree construction.
- How deep it goes
- Explains ordering choices and applications, but defers detailed heap operations and implementation mechanics.
- Examples
- Uses task tuples, age negation, bounded top-k retention, and frequency-weighted Huffman nodes.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via a priority queue to retrieve minimum priorities and maintain a bounded set of largest values.
Read how Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures explains min-heap →
Grokking Data Structures
A min-heap is a heap in which every parent has a value no larger than its children, so the root contains the smallest element.
- How it is used
- Uses a min-heap to extract small elements or maintain the best k candidates during a scan.
- How deep it goes
- Defines parent–child ordering, explains priority inversion, and applies the structure to bounded selection without detailing heap implementation.
- Examples
- Demonstrates six-largest selection from lottery-frequency entries using a Python heap and a custom priority function.
- What you can do after
- Apply a min-heap to extract small elements and solve top-k selection with bounded additional space.
Related concepts
- heapkind of · A binary heap is an almost complete binary tree in which each parent satisfies an ordering property relative to its children, enabling efficient access to a minimum or maximum element.
- max heapcontrasts with · A max heap is a heap-ordered data structure in which each parent is no smaller than its children, making a maximum element available at the root.
- top-kused by · Top-k is a selection method that identifies or retains up to k items ranked highest according to a specified criterion.
- priority queueused by · A priority queue is an abstract data type that retrieves or removes elements according to assigned priority rather than insertion order.
- shared memoryuses · Shared memory is a memory region or storage area accessible to multiple processes, threads, or other execution components for accessing or exchanging data.
- root nodehas part · A root node is the designated starting node of a rooted tree or hierarchy, with no parent within that structure.
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