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A comment on Ask HN: Why do many software engineers not know data structures and algorithms?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Why do many software engineers not know data stru... by sethammons on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @10:13PM (#20692158)
Knowing it exists at all is the long tent in the poll. If I need some way to get my next item based on some form of priority, knowing about heaps and priority queues helps me not build something kinda similar that is objectively worse.
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Re:Ask HN: Why do many software engineers not know data stru... by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @10:49PM (#20692330)
Sure, knowing that there's something out there to look for might be helpful. (Might not, too. Googling "how do I remove items from a list by priority" might get you info on priority queues.)

But if I know that "priority queue" is what I'm looking for, I can then totally forget how to implement a priority queue. I can look it up as many times as I'm going to need it in the rest of my career faster than I can memorize it. (And if I need it very many times, I'll memorize it just by using it.)

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