Heap

A Heap is a very useful data structure, because it sorts, quickly, at insert time.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heap_(data_structure)

You can use it for things like:

• Help with scientific computing
• Quickly sorting
• Priority queues

Installation

Heap is available in Hex, the package can be installed by adding heap to your list of dependencies in mix.exs:

def deps do
  [
    {:heap, "~> 3.0.0"}
  ]
end

Documentation for the latest release can be found on HexDocs and for the main branch on docs.harton.nz.

Deprecation warning

If you're upgrading from heap < 2.0 be aware that the direction of the :< and :> atoms passed into Heap.new/1 has changed to make more sense.

Examples

Create a min heap and use it to find the smallest element in a collection:

1..500 |> Enum.shuffle |> Enum.into(Heap.min) |> Heap.root
# => 1

Likewise, for max heaps:

1..500 |> Enum.shuffle |> Enum.into(Heap.max) |> Heap.root
# => 500

A priority queue:

Tuples are compared by their elements in order, so you can push tuples of {priority, term} into a Heap for sorting by priority:

Heap.new
|> Heap.push({4, :jam})
|> Heap.push({1, :milk})
|> Heap.push({2, :eggs})
|> Heap.push({1, :bread})
|> Heap.push({3, :butter})
|> Heap.push({2, :coffee})
|> Enum.map(fn {_, what} -> what end)
# => [:bread, :milk, :coffee, :eggs, :butter, :jam]

The heap can also be constructed with a custom comparator:

Heap.new(&(Date.compare(elem(&1, 0), elem(&2, 0)) == :gt))
|> Heap.push({~D[2017-11-20], :jam})
|> Heap.push({~D[2017-11-21], :milk})
|> Heap.push({~D[2017-10-21], :bread})
|> Heap.push({~D[2017-10-20], :eggs})
|> Enum.map(fn {_, what} -> what end)
# => [:milk, :jam, :bread, :eggs]

To access the root and the rest of the heap in one line use Heap.split/1:

{root, rest} = Heap.split(heap)
{root, rest} == {Heap.root(heap), Heap.pop(heap)}
# => true

License

This software is licensed under the terms of the HL3-FULL, see the LICENSE.md file included with this package for the terms.

This license actively proscribes this software being used by and for some industries, countries and activities. If your usage of this software doesn't comply with the terms of this license, then contact me with the details of your use-case to organise the purchase of a license - the cost of which may include a donation to a suitable charity or NGO.