package heaps;
/**
* Interface common to heap data structures.
*
Heaps are tree-like data structures that allow storing elements in a specific * way. Each node corresponds to an element and has one parent node (except for the root) and * at most two children nodes. Every element contains a key, and those keys * indicate how the tree shall be built. For instance, for a min-heap, the key of a node shall * be greater than or equal to its parent's and lower than or equal to its children's (the opposite rule applies to a * max-heap).
*All heap-related operations (inserting or deleting an element, extracting the min or max) are performed in * O(log n) time.
* @author Nicolas Renard * * */ public interface Heap { /** * * @return the top element in the heap, the one with lowest key for min-heap or with * the highest key for max-heap * @throws Exception if heap is empty */ public abstract HeapElement getElement() throws EmptyHeapException; /** * Inserts an element in the heap. Adds it to then end and toggle it until it finds its * right position. * * @param element an instance of the HeapElement class. */ public abstract void insertElement(HeapElement element); /** * Delete an element in the heap. * * @param elementIndex int containing the position in the heap of the element to be deleted. */ public abstract void deleteElement(int elementIndex); }