Blocking Dequeue

This package (repo) provides an implementation of a thread-safe, blocking, generic dequeue that can be used as FIFO or LIFO or a hybrid between the 2.

Installation

To install this package, you will need to setup your go workspace first. Also this package requires go v1.18 or later.

1. To install the package run the following command:

   go get github.com/AmrSaber/go-blocking-dequeue

2. To import the package:

   import "github.com/AmrSaber/go-blocking-dequeue"

3. Use the package in code using blocking_dequeue module (see usage below).

Usage

Initialization

To create a new dequeue use blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue function as follows:

// Integers dequeue
buffer := make([]int, 10)
integersDequeue := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)
integersDequeue.PushBack(10)

// Strings dequeue
buffer := make([]string, 10)
stringsDequeue := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)
stringsDequeue.PushBack("hello")

type User struct {
  Username string
  Age      int
}

// Dequeue of custom type
buffer := make([]User, 10)
usersDequeue := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)
usersDequeue.PushBack(User{ "Amr", 25 })

// Pointer dequeue
buffer := make([]*User, 10)
usersPtrDequeue := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)
usersPtrDequeue.PushBack(&User{ "Amr", 25 })

The dequeue is implemented using generics, so it can hold any datatype, just create a buffer with the desired datatype and pass it to the creation function.

Capacity

The capacity of the dequeue is the length of the provided buffer.

Usage as Queue

buffer := make([]int, 10)
dq := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)

dq.PushBack(1) // Pushed to the end of the dequeue
dq.PushBack(2) // Pushed to the end of the dequeue
dq.PushBack(3) // Pushed to the end of the dequeue

dq.PopFront() // Pops from the top, returns 1
dq.PopFront() // Pops from the top, returns 2
dq.PopFront() // Pops from the top, returns 3

Usage as Stack

buffer := make([]int, 10)
dq := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)

dq.PushFront(1) // Pushed to the start of the dequeue
dq.PushFront(2) // Pushed to the start of the dequeue
dq.PushFront(3) // Pushed to the start of the dequeue

dq.PopFront() // Pops from the top, returns 3
dq.PopFront() // Pops from the top, returns 2
dq.PopFront() // Pops from the top, returns 1

API Documentation

The package itself exposes 1 function NewBlockingQueue that is used to create a new dequeue and return a pointer to it.

The dequeue itself exposes the following methods:

• PushFront, PushBack
• PopFront, PopBack
• PeekFront, PeekBack
• Size, IsEmpty, IsFull

The detailed documentation can be found at the related go packages page.

Limitations and Drawbacks

This dequeue is implemented using ring (or circular) buffer so all of the operations are done in O(1) time complexity.

However, due to the thread-safe nature, and all the lock/unlock/wait/signal logic, it's expected to be a bit slower than plain ring buffer. If you intend to use this dequeue in a single threaded context (where only a single goroutine will have access to it) it's advised to use plain circular buffer or the built-in container/list instead.

If you intend to use it as a limited capacity queue to communicate between goroutines, it would be better to use built-in channels with buffer, so instead of

buffer := make([]int, 10)
dq := blocking_dequeue.NewBlockingDequeue(buffer)

// Push to queue
dq.PushBack(1)

// Pop from queue
dq.PopFront()

You better use

ch := make(chan int, 10)

// Push to queue
ch <- 1

// Pop from queue
<- ch

That is unless you need access the other provided methods, such as Peek variations, Size, IsFull, and so on...

Benchmarking

No benchmarking against plain ring buffer or the built-in container/list nor channels yet. But it's in the plan.

Contribution

If you find a bug, you are welcome to create a ticket on github or create a PR with the fix directly mentioning in the description of the PR what is the problem and how your PR fixes it.

If you want to suggest a feature (even if you have no idea how it will be implemented) feel free to open a ticket with it.