Understanding how to create a heap in Python - Stack Overflow
Heaps using python
Heaps in Python
Question on heapq design - why no maxheap implementation?
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In Python 2.X and 3.x, heaps are supported through an importable library, heapq. It supplies numerous functions to work with the heap data structure modelled in a Python list. Example:
>>> from heapq import heappush, heappop
>>> heap = []
>>> data = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8, 0]
>>> for item in data:
heappush(heap, item)
>>> ordered = []
>>> while heap:
ordered.append(heappop(heap))
>>> ordered
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>> data.sort()
>>> data == ordered
True
You can find out more about Heap functions: heappush, heappop, heappushpop, heapify, heapreplace in heap python docs.
Here's another variation based on Sedgewick
The heap is represented internally in an array where if a node is at k, it's children are at 2*k and 2*k + 1. The first element of the array is not used, to make the math more convenient.
To add a new element to the heap, you append it to the end of the array and then call swim repeatedly until the new element finds its place in the heap.
To delete the root, you swap it with the last element in the array, delete it and then call sink until the swapped element finds its place.
swim(k):
while k > 1 and less(k/2, k):
exch(k, k/2)
k = k/2
sink(k):
while 2*k <= N:
j = 2*k
if j < N and less(j, j+1):
j++
if not less(k, j):
break
exch(k, j)
k = j
Here's a visualization of heap insert, inserting the first 15 letters of the alphabet: [a-o]

Hi I’m using python to heap return n largest a list of tuples.
For example :[(30,70,100), (20,30,50), (10,40,50)] . I would like the heap return the largest to only consider those tuples where the element x[1] < value c = 50 .
I cannot filter the list before this is being done because the value c will be updated each time after the largest element is returned and then I will apply heap again. The value c will increase by the first element, x[0].
I have tried to insert a key= lambda x: x[1] < c for the heap n largest method, But it doesn’t work. Any advice or insight is highly appreciated!!