Change priorityQueue to max priorityqueue

Question

I have priority queue in Java of Integers:

 PriorityQueue pq= new PriorityQueue();

When I call pq.poll(

Answer 1

Change PriorityQueue to MAX PriorityQueue Method 1 : Queue pq = new PriorityQueue<>(Collections.reverseOrder()); Method 2 : Queue pq1 = new PriorityQueue<>((a, b) -> b - a); Let's look at few Examples:

public class Example1 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List ints = Arrays.asList(222, 555, 666, 333, 111, 888, 777, 444);
        Queue pq = new PriorityQueue<>(Collections.reverseOrder());
        pq.addAll(ints);
        System.out.println("Priority Queue => " + pq);
        System.out.println("Max element in the list => " + pq.peek());
        System.out.println("......................");
        // another way
        Queue pq1 = new PriorityQueue<>((a, b) -> b - a);
        pq1.addAll(ints);
        System.out.println("Priority Queue => " + pq1);
        System.out.println("Max element in the list => " + pq1.peek());
        /* OUTPUT
          Priority Queue => [888, 444, 777, 333, 111, 555, 666, 222]
          Max element in the list => 888
          ......................
           Priority Queue => [888, 444, 777, 333, 111, 555, 666, 222]
           Max element in the list => 888

         */


    }
}

Let's take a famous interview Problem : Kth Largest Element in an Array using PriorityQueue

public class KthLargestElement_1{
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List ints = Arrays.asList(222, 555, 666, 333, 111, 888, 777, 444);
        int k = 3;
        Queue pq = new PriorityQueue<>(Collections.reverseOrder());
        pq.addAll(ints);
        System.out.println("Priority Queue => " + pq);
        System.out.println("Max element in the list => " + pq.peek());
        while (--k > 0) {
            pq.poll();
        } // while
        System.out.println("Third largest => " + pq.peek());
/*
 Priority Queue => [888, 444, 777, 333, 111, 555, 666, 222]
Max element in the list => 888
Third largest => 666

 */
    }
}

Another way :

public class KthLargestElement_2 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List ints = Arrays.asList(222, 555, 666, 333, 111, 888, 777, 444);
        int k = 3;

        Queue pq1 = new PriorityQueue<>((a, b) -> b - a);
        pq1.addAll(ints);
        System.out.println("Priority Queue => " + pq1);
        System.out.println("Max element in the list => " + pq1.peek());
        while (--k > 0) {
            pq1.poll();
        } // while
        System.out.println("Third largest => " + pq1.peek());
        /*
          Priority Queue => [888, 444, 777, 333, 111, 555, 666, 222] 
          Max element in the list => 888 
          Third largest => 666

         */
    }
}

As we can see, both are giving the same result.