English

List Heaps

Data Structures and Algorithms 2018-02-16 v1

Abstract

This paper presents a simple extension of the binary heap, the List Heap. We use List Heaps to demonstrate the idea of adaptive heaps: heaps whose performance is a function of both the size of the problem instance and the disorder of the problem instance. We focus on the presortedness of the input sequence as a measure of disorder for the problem instance. A number of practical applications that rely on heaps deal with input that is not random. Even random input contains presorted subsequences. Devising heaps that exploit this structure may provide a means for improving practical performance. We present some basic empirical tests to support this claim. Additionally, adaptive heaps may provide an interesting direction for theoretical investigation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1802.05662,
  title  = {List Heaps},
  author = {Andrew Frohmader},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.05662},
  year   = {2018}
}