Using Lists as Queues

It is also possible to use a list as a queue, where the first element added is the first element retrieved (“first-in, first-out”); however, lists are not efficient for this purpose. While appends and pops from the end of list are fast, doing inserts or pops from the beginning of a list is slow (because all of the other elements have to be shifted by one).

To implement a queue, use collections.deque which was designed to have fast appends and pops from both ends. For example:

>>>

>>> from collections import deque

>>> queue = deque(["Eric", "John", "Michael"])

>>> queue.append("Terry")           # Terry arrives

>>> queue.append("Graham")          # Graham arrives

>>> queue.popleft()                 # The first to arrive now leaves

'Eric'

>>> queue.popleft()                 # The second to arrive now leaves

'John'

>>> queue                           # Remaining queue in order of arrival

deque(['Michael', 'Terry', 'Graham'])