Algorithms For Dummies

  Arranging and Searching Data 

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for item in heap:

    print('Key: ', item[0], 'Value: ', item[1])

print('Item 3 contains: ', heap[3][1])

print('The maximum item is: ', heapq.nlargest(1, heap))

  

Key:  0 Value:  Magenta

Key:  1 Value:  Green

Key:  2 Value:  Red

Key:  3 Value:  White

Key:  4 Value:  Yellow

Key:  5 Value:  Orange

Key:  6 Value:  Teal

Key:  7 Value:  Purple

Item 3 contains:  White

The maximum item is:  [(7, 'Purple')]

The example code performs the same tasks and provides the same output as the 

example in the previous section, except that it relies on a binary heap in this case. 

The dataset is the same as before. However, note the difference in the way you add 

the data to the heap using 

heappush

. In addition, after adding a new item, you 

must call 

sort

 to ensure that the items appear in sorted order. Manipulating the 

data is much like manipulating a list, as contrasted to the dictionary approach 

used for 

bintrees

. Whichever approach you use, it pays to choose an option that 

works well with the application you want to create and provides the fastest pos-

sible search times for the tasks you perform.