Uses of Priority Queues

Priority queues have many uses in Computer Science:

• Operating systems use priority queues to run the most important jobs first, print the shortest files first, etc.

• Discrete event simulation simulates a system by executing programs that represent events; an event will cause future events. A priority queue is used to store events, with the scheduled time of an event as the priority. deleteMin removes the event that will occur next, and time is jumped forward to its time.

• Greedy algorithms are algorithms that try the thing that looks the best, in hopes of finding a solution quickly. A priority queue can store possibilities, with the priority indicating how good they look.