Welcome to our exploration of queues and deques. These structures frequently surface in everyday programming, managing everything from system processes to printer queues. In this lesson, our goal is to understand and implement queues
and deques
in Java. Let's dive in!
A queue, similar to waiting in line at a store, operates on the "First In, First Out" or FIFO principle. Java's LinkedList
class enables the implementation of queues. This class includes methods such as add()
for adding items and poll()
for removing items.
The dequeued item, "Apple"
, was the first item we inserted, demonstrating the FIFO principle of queues.
Before trying to remove items from our queue, let's ensure it is not empty. This precaution will prevent runtime errors when attempting to dequeue from an empty queue.
A deque, or "double-ended queue," allows the addition and removal of items from both ends. Java provides the ArrayDeque
class for implementing deques. We can add items to both ends of our deque using the addLast(item)
method for the right end and the addFirst(item)
method for the left. Similarly, we can remove elements from left and right ends using removeFirst
and removeLast
.
The ArrayDeque
class offers substantial functionality, though it does not have a built-in rotation method. We can implement rotation manually using a loop.
Here, the manual rotation loop shifts all items to the right by one position.
Congratulations on finishing this detailed study of queues and deques in Java! You've learned their operating principles and how to construct and manipulate them in Java.
Prospectively, we aim to comprehend additional data structures like these. This quest opens up a world of opportunities for expressing your ideas and solving complex problems. Are you ready for forthcoming practice exercises to consolidate this new knowledge? Let's continue our exploration!
