Removing Elements from the Heap in JavaScript

In this article, we will explain How to Removing Elements from the Heap in JavaScript. A heap is a tree-like data structure. Eventually, the type of heap we will use for our objectives will be a binary tree.

Whenever a new element is inserted into a heap, it is placed next to the rightmost node of the lower layer.

Here we can say, a heap only allows us the deletion of the root element, which leaves us with a completely distorted heap.

If you want then buy a good, reliable, secure web hosting service  from here: click here

Hence, we first have to reinstate the complete binary tree property by moving the last node of the heap to the root.

Now, we need to bubble this misplaced value down until the heap property is back in place like the below code:

delete() {
var item = this.heap.shift();
this.heap.unshift(this.heap.pop());
var index = 0;
var leftChild = this.leftChildIndex(index);
var rightChild = this.rightChildIndex(index);
while(this.heap[leftChild] && this.heap[leftChild] > this.heap[index] || this.heap[rightChild] > this.heap[index]){
var max = leftChild;
if(this.heap[rightChild] && this.heap[rightChild] > this.heap[max]){
max = rightChild
}
this.swap(max, index);
index = max;
leftChild = this.leftChildIndex(max);
rightChild = this.rightChildIndex(max);
}
return item;
}

Firstly, the method starts by harvesting the longest element -therefore the first element in the array representation of the heap.

Previous JavaScript Articles

• What is JavaScript Regex?
• JavaScript Events Example
• How to create a preloader in JavaScript?
• forEach method in JavaScript
• Sorting Arrays in JavaScript
• Linear Search in JavaScript
• Pagination in Vanilla JavaScript
• Transform Arrays with Map() Method
• Create a Heap in JavaScript
• Inserting Elements into a Heap in JavaScript

Also, the built-in shift() method removes the first element of the array and returns the removed element, which we can store in the item variable.

Secondly, the last element of the heap gets removed via pop() and gets placed in the recently emptied first space of the heap via unshift().

So, unshift() is a built-in JavaScript method that works as the counterpart to shift().

Therefore the shift() removes the first element of the array and shifts the rest of the elements one space back, unshift() pushes an element to the beginning of the array and shifts the rest of the elements one space forward.

Finally, the method goes its imaginary cursor one level down at the end of the while loop and goes on to execute the code inside the while loop over and over until its condition no longer holds.

If you want then buy a good, reliable, secure web hosting service  from here: click here

That’s it. If you enjoyed reading this article and have more questions please reach out to our support team via live chat or email and we would be glad to help you. we provide server hosting for all types of need and we can even get your server up and running with the service of your choice.