Queue
A Queue is a linear structure which follows a particular order in which the operations are
performed. The order is First In First Out (FIFO). A good example of a queue is any queue of
consumers for a resource where the consumer that came first is served first. The difference
between stacks and queues is in removing. In a stack we remove the item the most recently
added; in a queue, we remove the item the least recently added.
Applications of Queue Data Structure
Queue is used when things don’t have to be processed immediately, but have to be processed
in First In First Out order like Breadth First Search. This property of Queue makes it also useful
in following kind of scenarios.
1) When a resource is shared among multiple consumers. Examples include CPU scheduling,
Disk Scheduling.
2) When data is transferred asynchronously (data not necessarily received at same rate as
sent) between two processes. Examples include IO Buffers, pipes, file IO, etc.
3) In Operating systems:
a) Semaphores
b) FCFS ( first come first serve) scheduling, example: FIFO queue
c) Spooling in printers
d) Buffer for devices like keyboard
4) In Networks:
a) Queues in routers/ switches
b) Mail Queues
5) Variations: ( Deque, Priority Queue, Doubly Ended Priority Queue )
Queue Interface in Java
The Queue interface present in the java.util package and extends the Collection interface is
used to hold the elements about to be processed in FIFO(First In First Out) order. It is an
ordered list of objects with its use limited to insert elements at the end of the list and deleting
elements from the start of the list, (i.e.), it follows the FIFO or the First-In-First-Out principle.
// Java program to demonstrate a Queue
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Queue;
public class QueueExample {
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Queue<Integer> q
= new LinkedList<>();
// Adds elements {0, 1, 2, 3, 4} to
// the queue
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
q.add(i);
// Display contents of the queue.
System.out.println("Elements of queue "
+ q);
// To remove the head of queue.
int removedele = q.remove();
System.out.println("removed element-"
+ removedele);
System.out.println(q);
// To view the head of queue
int head = q.peek();
System.out.println("head of queue-"
+ head);
// Rest all methods of collection
// interface like size and contains
// can be used with this
// implementation.
int size = q.size();
System.out.println("Size of queue-"
+ size);
}
}
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
OUTPUT
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETE
Elements of queue [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
removed element-0
[1, 2, 3, 4]
head of queue-1
Size of queue-4
