Concepts

Queue

Data Structure

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "Queue." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-computing.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/queue-data-structure.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). Queue. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-computing.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/queue-data-structure

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-queue,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {Queue},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-computing.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/queue-data-structure},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A queue is an abstract data type representing an ordered collection of elements in which items are added at the rear, enqueue, and removed from the front, dequeue, following first in first out ordering. It is a fundamental structure used in computer programs as well as in transport and operations research modeling for sequential processing.

Facts

Disputed

Origin Year

1950

No single origin date is agreed for the queue as a programming data structure. Agner Krarup Erlang's 1909 telephone-traffic work founded the separate mathematical discipline of queueing theory; the queue as an abstract data type in early programming and algorithms literature is usually placed in the 1950s, but sources do not converge on one year, so this date is an approximate placeholder, not an attested one.

Core Principle

The first element added is the first removed, in contrast to a stack's last in first out ordering. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections