Heaps are a useful data structure used to efficiently store and access sorted items of data. A heap is an abstract data structure created to implement a priority queue. While heaps are most often used for priority queues, they also have other applications and may be used as a priority structure in many algorithms. Heaps are based on the concept of a binary tree, with a parent node and two child nodes. In a heap, each node is arranged in a specific order. The nodes are organized so that the “maximum” node always comes before the two “lesser” nodes. This means that the maximum value stored in the heap is always accessible from any node in the tree. This is what allows for the efficient access of data stored in a heap. Heaps are also an excellent choice when dealing with certain sorting algorithms. As the nodes are already arranged in order, the process of selection or insertion sorting is greatly simplified as new nodes can easily be added and extracted from a given position in the tree. This also makes heaps ideal for finding the median or maximum values, or quickly calculating the average of given values. Heaps are a valuable tool for programming and their efficient data access make them an important part of the design of many algorithms.