README.md

Heapq

Simple heap (priority queue) implementation in Ruby. It provides push, pop, peek, and push_pop.

Features

• Max Heap Implementation: Ensures that the largest element is always at the top.
• Essential Heap Operations: Supports push, pop, peek, and push_pop.
• Bulk Initialization: Initialize the heap with an array of elements.

Usage

Initializing the Heap

You can initialize a new heap with an array of elements. The first element of the array represents the size of the heap, followed by the heap elements.

heap = Heapq.new([3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5])

Pushing Elements

Add a new element to the heap. The heap maintains the max heap property after insertion.

heap.push(7)

Popping Elements

Remove and return the top (largest) element from the heap.

max = heap.pop
puts max  # Output: 9

Push-Pop Operation

Push a new element onto the heap and then pop and return the top element in a single operation. This is more efficient than performing push followed by pop.

max = heap.push_pop(8)
puts max  # Output: 8

Peeking

View the top element without removing it from the heap.

top = heap.peek
puts top  # Output: 7

Getting the Size

Retrieve the number of elements currently in the heap.

size = heap.size
puts size  # Output: 8

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'heapq', '~> 1.0'

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.