How to Use Priority Queue in Python
PriorityQueue is a type of queue that comes with priorities, and its usage is as follows:
- Import the PriorityQueue class: First, you need to import the PriorityQueue class by using the following statement:
- import the PriorityQueue class from the module queue
- Instantiate a PriorityQueue object: Create a PriorityQueue object using the PriorityQueue class.
- Create a priority queue with the variable name pq.
- Adding elements: Use the put() method to add elements to the PriorityQueue, where the priority of the elements can be any type of value, such as integers, float numbers, strings, etc.
- Insert the numbers 3, 1, and 5 to the priority queue.
- Accessing elements: By using the get() method to retrieve elements from a PriorityQueue, the highest priority element will be returned.
- retrieve an element using pq.
- Check if the PriorityQueue is empty: Using the empty() method, determine if the PriorityQueue is empty. If it is empty, return True; otherwise, return False.
- if the priority queue is empty, print “PriorityQueue is empty”
- To get the size of the PriorityQueue: use the qsize() method to get the number of elements in the PriorityQueue.
- The size is equal to the queue’s current size.
It is important to note that PriorityQueue is a thread-safe queue, suitable for use in a multi-threaded environment. To use it in a multi-threaded environment, you can import the thread-safe PriorityQueue class with the following statement.
from queue import PriorityQueue as ThreadSafePriorityQueue