How do I efficiently keep track of the smallest element in a collection?

Question

In the vein of programming questions: suppose there's a collection of objects that can be compared to each other and sorted. What's the most efficient way to keep track of the smallest element in the collection as objects are added and the current smallest occasionally removed?

Answer 1

Using a min-heap is the best way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heap_(data_structure)

It is tailor made for this application.