下面是一个简单的例子，你可以用它来进行初步学习:

import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.PriorityQueue;
import java.util.Queue;
import java.util.Random;

public class PQExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //PriorityQueue with Comparator
        Queue<Customer> cpq = new PriorityQueue<>(7, idComp);
        addToQueue(cpq);
        pollFromQueue(cpq);
    }

    public static Comparator<Customer> idComp = new Comparator<Customer>(){

        @Override
        public int compare(Customer o1, Customer o2) {
            return (int) (o1.getId() - o2.getId());
        }

    };

    //utility method to add random data to Queue
    private static void addToQueue(Queue<Customer> cq){
        Random rand = new Random();
        for(int i=0;i<7;i++){
            int id = rand.nextInt(100);
            cq.add(new Customer(id, "KV"+id));
        }
    }


    private static void pollFromQueue(Queue<Customer> cq){
        while(true){
            Customer c = cq.poll();
            if(c == null) break;
            System.out.println("Customer Polled : "+c.getId() + " "+ c.getName());
        }
    }

}

只需将适当的Comparator传递给构造函数:

PriorityQueue(int initialCapacity, Comparator<? super E> comparator)

offer和add之间的唯一区别是它们所属的接口。offer属于Queue<E>接口，而add最初出现在Collection<E>接口。除此之外，这两种方法做的事情完全相同——将指定的元素插入优先级队列。

Java 8解决方案

我们可以使用Java 8中引入的lambda表达式或方法引用。如果我们有一些String值存储在优先队列中(容量为5)，我们可以提供内联比较器(基于String的长度):

使用lambda表达式

PriorityQueue<String> pq=
                    new PriorityQueue<String>(5,(a,b) -> a.length() - b.length());

使用方法参考

PriorityQueue<String> pq=
                new PriorityQueue<String>(5, Comparator.comparing(String::length));

然后我们可以使用它们中的任何一个:

public static void main(String[] args) {
        PriorityQueue<String> pq=
                new PriorityQueue<String>(5, (a,b) -> a.length() - b.length());
       // or pq = new PriorityQueue<String>(5, Comparator.comparing(String::length));
        pq.add("Apple");
        pq.add("PineApple");
        pq.add("Custard Apple");
        while (pq.size() != 0)
        {
            System.out.println(pq.remove());
        }
    }

这将打印:

Apple
PineApple
Custard Apple

要反转顺序(将其更改为max-priority queue)，只需在inline comparator中更改顺序或使用reversed as:

PriorityQueue<String> pq = new PriorityQueue<String>(5, 
                             Comparator.comparing(String::length).reversed());

我们也可以使用Collections.reverseOrder:

PriorityQueue<Integer> pqInt = new PriorityQueue<>(10, Collections.reverseOrder());
PriorityQueue<String> pq = new PriorityQueue<String>(5, 
                Collections.reverseOrder(Comparator.comparing(String::length))

我们可以看到集合。reverseOrder重载以获取比较器，这对自定义对象很有用。反转函数实际上使用Collections.reverseOrder:

default Comparator<T> reversed() {
    return Collections.reverseOrder(this);
}

Offer () vs add()

根据文件

offer方法尽可能插入一个元素，否则返回 假的。这与合集不同。方法，该方法可能失败 仅通过抛出未经检查的异常来添加元素。报价 方法是为失败是正常使用而设计的，而不是 异常发生，例如在固定容量(或“有界”)中 队列。

在使用有容量限制的队列时，offer()通常比add()更可取，后者只能通过抛出异常而无法插入元素。PriorityQueue是一个基于优先级堆的无界优先级队列。

作为使用Comparator的替代方法，您还可以让您在PriorityQueue中使用的类实现Comparable(并相应地重写compareTo方法)。

注意，如果排序是对象的直观排序，那么通常最好只使用Comparable而不是Comparator——例如，如果您有一个用例要按年龄对Person对象排序，那么可能最好只使用Comparator。

import java.lang.Comparable;
import java.util.PriorityQueue;

class Test
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        PriorityQueue<MyClass> queue = new PriorityQueue<MyClass>();
        queue.add(new MyClass(2, "short"));
        queue.add(new MyClass(2, "very long indeed"));
        queue.add(new MyClass(1, "medium"));
        queue.add(new MyClass(1, "very long indeed"));
        queue.add(new MyClass(2, "medium"));
        queue.add(new MyClass(1, "short"));
        while (queue.size() != 0)
            System.out.println(queue.remove());
    }
}

class MyClass implements Comparable<MyClass>
{
    int sortFirst;
    String sortByLength;

    public MyClass(int sortFirst, String sortByLength)
    {
        this.sortFirst = sortFirst;
        this.sortByLength = sortByLength;
    }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(MyClass other)
    {
        if (sortFirst != other.sortFirst)
            return Integer.compare(sortFirst, other.sortFirst);
        else
            return Integer.compare(sortByLength.length(), other.sortByLength.length());
    }

    public String toString()
    {
        return sortFirst + ", " + sortByLength;
    }
}

输出:

1, short
1, medium
1, very long indeed
2, short
2, medium
2, very long indeed

Priority Queue has some priority assigned to each element, The element with Highest priority appears at the Top Of Queue. Now, It depends on you how you want priority assigned to each of the elements. If you don't, the Java will do it the default way. The element with the least value is assigned the highest priority and thus is removed from the queue first. If there are several elements with the same highest priority, the tie is broken arbitrarily. You can also specify an ordering using Comparator in the constructor PriorityQueue(initialCapacity, comparator)

示例代码:

PriorityQueue<String> queue1 = new PriorityQueue<>();
queue1.offer("Oklahoma");
queue1.offer("Indiana");
queue1.offer("Georgia");
queue1.offer("Texas");
System.out.println("Priority queue using Comparable:");
while (queue1.size() > 0) {
    System.out.print(queue1.remove() + " ");
}
PriorityQueue<String> queue2 = new PriorityQueue(4, Collections.reverseOrder());
queue2.offer("Oklahoma");
queue2.offer("Indiana");
queue2.offer("Georgia");
queue2.offer("Texas");
System.out.println("\nPriority queue using Comparator:");
while (queue2.size() > 0) {
    System.out.print(queue2.remove() + " ");
}

输出:

Priority queue using Comparable:
Georgia Indiana Oklahoma Texas 
Priority queue using Comparator:
Texas Oklahoma Indiana Georgia 

除此之外，你还可以定义Custom Comparator:

import java.util.Comparator;

public class StringLengthComparator implements Comparator<String>
{
    @Override
    public int compare(String x, String y)
    {
        //Your Own Logic
    }
}

只是为了回答add() vs offer()问题(因为另一个问题在我看来已经完美回答了，这可能不是):

根据接口Queue上的JavaDoc，“offer方法尽可能插入一个元素，否则返回false。这与合集不同。方法，该方法只能通过抛出未经检查的异常来添加元素。offer方法设计用于故障是正常情况，而不是异常情况，例如在固定容量(或“有界”)队列中。”

That means if you can add the element (which should always be the case in a PriorityQueue), they work exactly the same. But if you can't add the element, offer() will give you a nice and pretty false return, while add() throws a nasty unchecked exception that you don't want in your code. If failure to add means code is working as intended and/or it is something you'll check normally, use offer(). If failure to add means something is broken, use add() and handle the resulting exception thrown according to the Collection interface's specifications.

它们都是通过这种方式实现的，以便在Queue接口上通过返回false(在有容量限制的队列中首选的方法)来指定offer()失败，并在Collection接口上通过抛出异常来维护add()总是失败的契约。

无论如何，希望这至少澄清了问题的那一部分。