AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is heap?
Heap: The region of memory used for data that must live beyond a single function call and whose size may be decided while the program runs. Programs or their runtimes request and release blocks from it, and forgetting to release causes leaks.
Heap: an example
In Python, a list you create lives on the heap, and the variable holding it just points there.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
- Hexadecimal
- Hyper-threading
- Hypervisor
- IEEE 754
- Inode
- Instruction cycle
- Instruction set architecture
- Integer overflow
Where you learn it
Heap is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.