org.jheaps

Interface MergeableHeap<K>

Type Parameters:

K - the type of keys maintained by this heap

All Superinterfaces:

Heap<K>

All Known Implementing Classes:

BinaryTreeSoftHeap

public interface MergeableHeap<K>
extends Heap<K>

A heap that allows melding with another heap.

The second heap becomes empty and unusable after the meld operation, meaning than further insertions are not possible and will throw an IllegalStateException.

A ClassCastException will be thrown if the two heaps are not of the same type. Moreover, the two heaps need to use the same comparators. If only one of them uses a custom comparator or both use custom comparators but are not the same by equals, an IllegalArgumentException is thrown.

Note that all running time bounds on mergeable heaps are valid assuming that the user does not perform cascading melds on heaps such as:

 d.meld(e);
 c.meld(d);
 b.meld(c);
 a.meld(b);
 

The above scenario, although efficiently supported by using union-find with path compression, invalidates the claimed bounds.

Author:

Dimitrios Michail

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	meld(MergeableHeap<K> other) Meld a heap into the current heap.

Methods inherited from interface org.jheaps.Heap

clear, comparator, deleteMin, findMin, insert, isEmpty, size

Method Detail

meld

void meld(MergeableHeap<K> other)

Meld a heap into the current heap. After the operation the other heap will be empty and will not permit further insertions.

Parameters:

other - a merge-able heap

Throws:

ClassCastException - if other is not compatible with this heap

IllegalArgumentException - if other does not have a compatible comparator