Heap class in .NET
Priority Queues look like a good fit to your problem: Priority queue in .Net
Google for "C# priority queues" for more implementations.
You could use SortedList
or a SortedDictionary
(see discussion below) with a custom key. If you used a type with referential equality, but could be compared based on the value you care about, then this could work.
Something like this:
class HeapKey : IComparable<HeapKey>
{
public HeapKey(Guid id, Int32 value)
{
Id = id;
Value = value;
}
public Guid Id { get; private set; }
public Int32 Value { get; private set; }
public int CompareTo(HeapKey other)
{
if (_enableCompareCount)
{
++_compareCount;
}
if (other == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("other");
}
var result = Value.CompareTo(other.Value);
return result == 0 ? Id.CompareTo(other.Id) : result;
}
}
Here is a working example of using a SortedDictionary
which has binary-heap performance characteristics:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
namespace SortedDictionaryAsBinaryHeap
{
class Program
{
private static Boolean _enableCompareCount = false;
private static Int32 _compareCount = 0;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var rnd = new Random();
for (int elementCount = 2; elementCount <= 6; elementCount++)
{
var keyValues = Enumerable.Range(0, (Int32)Math.Pow(10, elementCount))
.Select(i => new HeapKey(Guid.NewGuid(), rnd.Next(0, 10)))
.ToDictionary(k => k);
var heap = new SortedDictionary<HeapKey, HeapKey>(keyValues);
_compareCount = 0;
_enableCompareCount = true;
var min = heap.First().Key;
_enableCompareCount = false;
Console.WriteLine("Element count: {0}; Compare count for getMinElement: {1}",
(Int32)Math.Pow(10, elementCount),
_compareCount);
_compareCount = 0;
_enableCompareCount = true;
heap.Remove(min);
_enableCompareCount = false;
Console.WriteLine("Element count: {0}; Compare count for deleteMinElement: {1}",
(Int32)Math.Pow(10, elementCount),
_compareCount);
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
private class HeapKey : IComparable<HeapKey>
{
public HeapKey(Guid id, Int32 value)
{
Id = id;
Value = value;
}
public Guid Id { get; private set; }
public Int32 Value { get; private set; }
public int CompareTo(HeapKey other)
{
if (_enableCompareCount)
{
++_compareCount;
}
if (other == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("other");
}
var result = Value.CompareTo(other.Value);
return result == 0 ? Id.CompareTo(other.Id) : result;
}
}
}
}
Results:
Element count: 100; Compare count for getMinElement: 0
Element count: 100; Compare count for deleteMinElement: 8
Element count: 1000; Compare count for getMinElement: 0
Element count: 1000; Compare count for deleteMinElement: 10
Element count: 10000; Compare count for getMinElement: 0
Element count: 10000; Compare count for deleteMinElement: 13
Element count: 100000; Compare count for getMinElement: 0
Element count: 100000; Compare count for deleteMinElement: 14
Element count: 1000000; Compare count for getMinElement: 0
Element count: 1000000; Compare count for deleteMinElement: 21