Random access priority queue

Question

Continuing List to priority queue

I\'m implementing a improved priority_queue with random access.

template 

        

Answer 1

Doesn't look that great to me:

• The unary constructor should take argument by const reference.
• The assignment operator doesn't check for self-assignment.
• The getContainer() method shows a lack of clarity in the interface - why would you simply expose the implementation detail like that?
• Most importantly: why do you want a "random access priority queue"?

Answer 2

Your pop() method can violate the heap ordering. Use pop_heap() instead of pop_back(). I can't seem to find any other bug right now.

You can easily test such an implementation by pushing in a random integers and pop() them one by one. You should get them back in sorted order. This is known as heap sort.

Suggestions:

• Instead of returning a ref to the container you could implement an const iterator to this class.

• Note that you should not change the key of the randomly accessed element because it may destroy the heap structure. If you need such functionality you should implement a change_key function which would change the key safely and maintain the heap ordering.