Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

Section 21.6 Queues

• A queue (p. 890) is similar to a checkout line in a supermarket—the first person in line is serviced first, and other customers enter the line only at the end and wait to be serviced.

• Queue nodes are removed only from the head (p. 890) of the queue and are inserted only at the tail. For this reason, a queue is referred to as a first-in, first-out FIFOaaaa data structure.

• The insert and remove operations for a queue are known as enqueue (p. 891) and dequeue (p. 891).

• Queues have many uses in computer systems. Most computers have only a single processor, so only one application at a time can be serviced. Entries for the other applications are placed in a queue. The entry at the front of the queue is the next to receive ...