Self reordering list in Python

ABO abo at google.com
Tue Sep 27 13:57:59 EDT 2005


Actually, after posting this I did some more work on the PQueue modules
I had, implementing both bisect and heapq versions. It turns out the
bisect version is heaps faster if you ever delete or re-set values in
the queue.

The problem is heapq is O(N) for finding a particular entry in the
Queue, and any time you change or remove something from it you need to
heapify it again, which is also O(N).

Andew Snare has a C PQueue extension module that is heaps faster from
all angles. It uses a fibonacci heap and gets O(lg N) deletes and
re-sets. I think it does this by using the dict to speed finding
entries it in the heap, and uses some properties of the heap to "assign
lower" efficiently.

The queue used in the lrucache will also suffer from the O(N) problem
when deleting or reseting values in the cache.




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