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A Faster and Unifying Algorithm for Comparing Trees

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Book cover Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1848))

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Abstract

A widely-used method for determining the similarity of two labeled trees is to compute a maximum agreement subtree of the two trees. Previous work on this similarity measure only concerns with the comparison of labeled trees of two special kinds, namely, uniformly labeled trees (i.e., trees with all their nodes labeled by the same symbol) and evolutionary trees (i.e., leaf-labeled trees with distinct symbols for distinct leaves). This paper presents an algorithm for comparing trees that are labeled in an arbitrary manner. In addition to the generalization, our algorithm is faster than the previous algorithms in many cases.

Research supported in part by NSF Grant CCR-9531028

Research supported in part by Hong Kong RGC Grant HKU-7027/98E

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Ming -Yang Kao

  2. Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Tak -Wah Lam & Hing -Fung Ting

  3. E-Business Technology Institute, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Wing -Kin Sung

Authors
  1. Ming -Yang Kao
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  2. Tak -Wah Lam
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  3. Wing -Kin Sung
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  4. Hing -Fung Ting
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Matematica ed Applicazioni, Universitá die Palermo, Via Archirafi 34, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Raffaele Giancarlo

  2. Centre de recherches mathématiques, Université de Montréal, CP 6128, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3J7

    David Sankoff

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kao, M.Y., Lam, T.W., Sung, W.K., Ting, H.F. (2000). A Faster and Unifying Algorithm for Comparing Trees. In: Giancarlo, R., Sankoff, D. (eds) Combinatorial Pattern Matching. CPM 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1848. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45123-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45123-4_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67633-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45123-5

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