Bucket queue

Data structure for integer priorities

A bucket queue is a data structure that implements the priority queue abstract data type: it maintains a dynamic collection of elements with numerical priorities and allows quick access to the element with minimum priority. In the bucket queue, the priorities must be integers, and it is particularly suited to applications in which the priorities have a small range. A bucket queue has the form of an array of buckets: an array data structure, indexed by the priorities, whose cells contain collections of items with the same priority as each other. With this data structure, insertion of elements and changes of their priority take constant time. Searching for and removing the minimum-priority element takes time proportional to the number of buckets or, by maintaining a pointer to the most recently found bucket, in time proportional to the difference in priorities between successive operations.

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