Heaps

Heaps are types of Trees - data structures used for sorting values - in which the minimum of a set of values is stored at the root node of a tree for easy access. The smallest values are stored at the base of the tree; since there are fewer nodes, it means it is easy to find the next smallest value. As nodes get further from the root of the tree, they get further from the minimum, and less is known about their relative ordering.

See Priority Queues.