data structures - What do I use for a max-heap implementation in Python?

Question

Python includes the heapq module for min-heaps, but I need a max heap. What should I use for a max-heap implementation in Python?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to invert the value of the keys and use heapq. For example, turn 1000.0 into -1000.0 and 5.0 into -5.0.

Answer 2

You can use

import heapq
listForTree = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]    
heapq.heapify(listForTree)             # for a min heap
heapq._heapify_max(listForTree)        # for a maxheap!!

If you then want to pop elements, use:

heapq.heappop(minheap)      # pop from minheap
heapq._heappop_max(maxheap) # pop from maxheap

Answer 3

The solution is to negate your values when you store them in the heap, or invert your object comparison like so:

import heapq

class MaxHeapObj(object):
  def __init__(self, val): self.val = val
  def __lt__(self, other): return self.val > other.val
  def __eq__(self, other): return self.val == other.val
  def __str__(self): return str(self.val)

Example of a max-heap:

maxh = []
heapq.heappush(maxh, MaxHeapObj(x))
x = maxh[0].val  # fetch max value
x = heapq.heappop(maxh).val  # pop max value

But you have to remember to wrap and unwrap your values, which requires knowing if you are dealing with a min- or max-heap.

MinHeap, MaxHeap classes

Adding classes for MinHeap and MaxHeap objects can simplify your code:

class MinHeap(object):
  def __init__(self): self.h = []
  def heappush(self, x): heapq.heappush(self.h, x)
  def heappop(self): return heapq.heappop(self.h)
  def __getitem__(self, i): return self.h[i]
  def __len__(self): return len(self.h)

class MaxHeap(MinHeap):
  def heappush(self, x): heapq.heappush(self.h, MaxHeapObj(x))
  def heappop(self): return heapq.heappop(self.h).val
  def __getitem__(self, i): return self.h[i].val

Example usage:

minh = MinHeap()
maxh = MaxHeap()
# add some values
minh.heappush(12)
maxh.heappush(12)
minh.heappush(4)
maxh.heappush(4)
# fetch "top" values
print(minh[0], maxh[0])  # "4 12"
# fetch and remove "top" values
print(minh.heappop(), maxh.heappop())  # "4 12"

Answer 4

The easiest and ideal solution

Multiply the values by -1

There you go. All the highest numbers are now the lowest and vice versa.

Just remember that when you pop an element to multiply it with -1 in order to get the original value again.

Answer 5

I implemented a max heap version of heapq and submitted it to PyPI. (Very slight change of heapq module CPython code.)

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/heapq_max/

https://github.com/he-zhe/heapq_max

Installation

pip install heapq_max

Usage

tl;dr: same as heapq module except adding ‘_max’ to all functions.

heap_max = []                           # creates an empty heap
heappush_max(heap_max, item)            # pushes a new item on the heap
item = heappop_max(heap_max)            # pops the largest item from the heap
item = heap_max[0]                      # largest item on the heap without popping it
heapify_max(x)                          # transforms list into a heap, in-place, in linear time
item = heapreplace_max(heap_max, item)  # pops and returns largest item, and
                                    # adds new item; the heap size is unchanged

Answer 6

This is a simple MaxHeap implementation based on heapq. Though it only works with numeric values.

import heapq
from typing import List


class MaxHeap:
    def __init__(self):
        self.data = []

    def top(self):
        return -self.data[0]

    def push(self, val):
        heapq.heappush(self.data, -val)

    def pop(self):
        return -heapq.heappop(self.data)

Usage:

max_heap = MaxHeap()
max_heap.push(3)
max_heap.push(5)
max_heap.push(1)
print(max_heap.top())  # 5

Answer 7

If you are inserting keys that are comparable but not int-like, you could potentially override the comparison operators on them (i.e. <= become > and > becomes <=). Otherwise, you can override heapq._siftup in the heapq module (it's all just Python code, in the end).

Answer 8

Allowing you to chose an arbitrary amount of largest or smallest items

import heapq
heap = [23, 7, -4, 18, 23, 42, 37, 2, 8, 2, 23, 7, -4, 18, 23, 42, 37, 2]
heapq.heapify(heap)
print(heapq.nlargest(3, heap))  # [42, 42, 37]
print(heapq.nsmallest(3, heap)) # [-4, -4, 2]

Answer 9

The Easiest way is to convert every element into negative and it will solve your problem.

import heapq
heap = []
heapq.heappush(heap, 1*(-1))
heapq.heappush(heap, 10*(-1))
heapq.heappush(heap, 20*(-1))
print(heap)

The output will look like:

[-20, -1, -10]

Answer 10

Extending the int class and overriding __lt__ is one of the ways.

import queue
class MyInt(int):
    def __lt__(self, other):
        return self > other

def main():
    q = queue.PriorityQueue()
    q.put(MyInt(10))
    q.put(MyInt(5))
    q.put(MyInt(1))
    while not q.empty():
        print (q.get())


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Answer 11

I also needed to use a max-heap, and I was dealing with integers, so I just wrapped the two methods that I needed from heap as follows:

import heapq


def heappush(heap, item):
    return heapq.heappush(heap, -item)


def heappop(heap):
    return -heapq.heappop(heap)

And then I just replaced my heapq.heappush() and heapq.heappop() calls with heappush() and heappop() respectively.

Answer 12

I have created a heap wrapper that inverts the values to create a max-heap, as well as a wrapper class for a min-heap to make the library more OOP-like. Here is the gist. There are three classes; Heap (abstract class), HeapMin, and HeapMax.

Methods:

isempty() -> bool; obvious
getroot() -> int; returns min/max
push() -> None; equivalent to heapq.heappush
pop() -> int; equivalent to heapq.heappop
view_min()/view_max() -> int; alias for getroot()
pushpop() -> int; equivalent to heapq.pushpop

Answer 13

In case if you would like to get the largest K element using max heap, you can do the following trick:

nums= [3,2,1,5,6,4]
k = 2  #k being the kth largest element you want to get
heapq.heapify(nums) 
temp = heapq.nlargest(k, nums)
return temp[-1]

Answer 14

Following up to Isaac Turner's excellent answer, I'd like put an example based on K Closest Points to the Origin using max heap.

from math import sqrt
import heapq


class MaxHeapObj(object):
    def __init__(self, val):
        self.val = val.distance
        self.coordinates = val.coordinates

    def __lt__(self, other):
        return self.val > other.val

    def __eq__(self, other):
        return self.val == other.val

    def __str__(self):
        return str(self.val)


class MinHeap(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.h = []

    def heappush(self, x):
        heapq.heappush(self.h, x)

    def heappop(self):
        return heapq.heappop(self.h)

    def __getitem__(self, i):
        return self.h[i]

    def __len__(self):
        return len(self.h)


class MaxHeap(MinHeap):
    def heappush(self, x):
        heapq.heappush(self.h, MaxHeapObj(x))

    def heappop(self):
        return heapq.heappop(self.h).val

    def peek(self):
        return heapq.nsmallest(1, self.h)[0].val

    def __getitem__(self, i):
        return self.h[i].val


class Point():
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        self.distance = round(sqrt(x**2 + y**2), 3)
        self.coordinates = (x, y)


def find_k_closest(points, k):
    res = [Point(x, y) for (x, y) in points]
    maxh = MaxHeap()

    for i in range(k):
        maxh.heappush(res[i])

    for p in res[k:]:
        if p.distance < maxh.peek():
            maxh.heappop()
            maxh.heappush(p)

    res = [str(x.coordinates) for x in maxh.h]
    print(f"{k} closest points from origin : {', '.join(res)}")


points = [(10, 8), (-2, 4), (0, -2), (-1, 0), (3, 5), (-2, 3), (3, 2), (0, 1)]
find_k_closest(points, 3)

Answer 15

To elaborate on https://stackoverflow.com/a/59311063/1328979, here is a fully documented, annotated and tested Python 3 implementation for the general case.

from __future__ import annotations  # To allow "MinHeap.push -> MinHeap:"
from typing import Generic, List, Optional, TypeVar
from heapq import heapify, heappop, heappush, heapreplace


T = TypeVar('T')


class MinHeap(Generic[T]):
    '''
    MinHeap provides a nicer API around heapq's functionality.
    As it is a minimum heap, the first element of the heap is always the
    smallest.
    >>> h = MinHeap([3, 1, 4, 2])
    >>> h[0]
    1
    >>> h.peek()
    1
    >>> h.push(5)  # N.B.: the array isn't always fully sorted.
    [1, 2, 4, 3, 5]
    >>> h.pop()
    1
    >>> h.pop()
    2
    >>> h.pop()
    3
    >>> h.push(3).push(2)
    [2, 3, 4, 5]
    >>> h.replace(1)
    2
    >>> h
    [1, 3, 4, 5]
    '''
    def __init__(self, array: Optional[List[T]] = None):
        if array is None:
            array = []
        heapify(array)
        self.h = array
    def push(self, x: T) -> MinHeap:
        heappush(self.h, x)
        return self  # To allow chaining operations.
    def peek(self) -> T:
        return self.h[0]
    def pop(self) -> T:
        return heappop(self.h)
    def replace(self, x: T) -> T:
        return heapreplace(self.h, x)
    def __getitem__(self, i) -> T:
        return self.h[i]
    def __len__(self) -> int:
        return len(self.h)
    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return str(self.h)
    def __repr__(self) -> str:
        return str(self.h)


class Reverse(Generic[T]):
    '''
    Wrap around the provided object, reversing the comparison operators.
    >>> 1 < 2
    True
    >>> Reverse(1) < Reverse(2)
    False
    >>> Reverse(2) < Reverse(1)
    True
    >>> Reverse(1) <= Reverse(2)
    False
    >>> Reverse(2) <= Reverse(1)
    True
    >>> Reverse(2) <= Reverse(2)
    True
    >>> Reverse(1) == Reverse(1)
    True
    >>> Reverse(2) > Reverse(1)
    False
    >>> Reverse(1) > Reverse(2)
    True
    >>> Reverse(2) >= Reverse(1)
    False
    >>> Reverse(1) >= Reverse(2)
    True
    >>> Reverse(1)
    1
    '''
    def __init__(self, x: T) -> None:
        self.x = x
    def __lt__(self, other: Reverse) -> bool:
        return other.x.__lt__(self.x)
    def __le__(self, other: Reverse) -> bool:
        return other.x.__le__(self.x)
    def __eq__(self, other) -> bool:
        return self.x == other.x
    def __ne__(self, other: Reverse) -> bool:
        return other.x.__ne__(self.x)
    def __ge__(self, other: Reverse) -> bool:
        return other.x.__ge__(self.x)
    def __gt__(self, other: Reverse) -> bool:
        return other.x.__gt__(self.x)
    def __str__(self):
        return str(self.x)
    def __repr__(self):
        return str(self.x)


class MaxHeap(MinHeap):
    '''
    MaxHeap provides an implement of a maximum-heap, as heapq does not provide
    it. As it is a maximum heap, the first element of the heap is always the
    largest. It achieves this by wrapping around elements with Reverse,
    which reverses the comparison operations used by heapq.
    >>> h = MaxHeap([3, 1, 4, 2])
    >>> h[0]
    4
    >>> h.peek()
    4
    >>> h.push(5)  # N.B.: the array isn't always fully sorted.
    [5, 4, 3, 1, 2]
    >>> h.pop()
    5
    >>> h.pop()
    4
    >>> h.pop()
    3
    >>> h.pop()
    2
    >>> h.push(3).push(2).push(4)
    [4, 3, 2, 1]
    >>> h.replace(1)
    4
    >>> h
    [3, 1, 2, 1]
    '''
    def __init__(self, array: Optional[List[T]] = None):
        if array is not None:
            array = [Reverse(x) for x in array]  # Wrap with Reverse.
        super().__init__(array)
    def push(self, x: T) -> MaxHeap:
        super().push(Reverse(x))
        return self
    def peek(self) -> T:
        return super().peek().x
    def pop(self) -> T:
        return super().pop().x
    def replace(self, x: T) -> T:
        return super().replace(Reverse(x)).x


if __name__ == '__main__':
    import doctest
    doctest.testmod()

https://gist.github.com/marccarre/577a55850998da02af3d4b7b98152cf4

Answer 16

The heapq module has everything you need to implement a maxheap. It does only the heappush functionality of max-heap. I've demonstrated below how to overcome that below ⬇

Add this function in the heapq module:

def _heappush_max(heap, item):
    """Push item onto heap, maintaining the heap invariant."""
    heap.append(item)
    _siftdown_max(heap, 0, len(heap)-1)

and at the end add this :

try:
    from _heapq import _heappush_max
except ImportError:
    pass

Voila ! It's done.

PS - to go to heapq function . first write " import heapq" in your editor and then right click 'heapq' and select go to defintion.