What is queue in programming

In programming, a queue is a data structure that follows the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle. It is an ordered collection of elements in which an item that is added first is the first one to be removed. It resembles a real-life queue, such as people standing in line, where the person who joins the line first is the first to be served.

A queue has two main operations:

  1. Enqueue: It adds an element to the end of the queue. This operation is also called "push" or "insert."

  2. Dequeue: It removes and returns the element at the front of the queue. This operation is also called "pop" or "remove."

Queues are useful in scenarios where you need to maintain the order of elements and process them in a sequential manner. For example, they can be used in job scheduling, breadth-first search algorithms, handling asynchronous tasks, and more.

In programming, queues can be implemented using various data structures, such as arrays, linked lists, or built-in queue classes provided by programming languages or libraries. The choice of implementation depends on the specific requirements of the application and the available programming tools.

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