How to remove item from heap efficiently?

[Peter Otten]

Sven R. Kunze wrote:

> Hi everybody,
> 
> suppose, I need items sorted by two criteria (say timestamp and
> priority). For that purpose, I use two heaps (heapq module):
> 
> heapA # items sorted by timestamp
> heapB # items sorted by priority
> 
> Now my actual problem. When popping an item of heapA (that's the oldest
> item), I need to remove the very same item from heapB, regardlessly
> where it is in heapB. And vice versa.
> 
> Is there a datastructure or a simple trick to achieve that in an
> efficient matter?

The heapq docs mention marking as deleted as an alternative to removing.
Another option is to try sorted lists and bisect.