Abstract
The length of a longest common subsequence (LLCS) of two or more strings is a useful measure of their similarity. The LLCS of a pair of strings is related to the ‘edit distance’, or number of mutations/errors/editing steps required in passing from one string to the other.
In this talk, we explore some of the combinatorial properties of the sub- and super-sequence relations, survey various algorithms for computing the LLCS, and introduce some results on the expected LLCS for pairs of random strings.
This research was partially supported by the ESPRIT II BRA Programme of the EC under contract 7141 (ALCOM II).
This author was supported by an East European Scholarship from the University of Warwick and an ORS Award from the CVCP.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
A. V. Aho. Algorithms for finding patterns in strings. In J. van Leeuwen, editor, Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science, chapter 5, pages 255–300. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990.
A. V. Aho, D. D. Hirschberg, and J. D. Ullman. Bounds on the complexity of the longest common subsequence problem. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 23(1):1–12, 1976.
K. S. Alexander. The rate of convergence of the mean length of the longest common subsequences. Unpublished manuscript.
A. Apostolico. Improving the worst-case performance of the Hunt-Szymanski strategy for the longest common subsequence of two strings. Information Processing Letters, 23:63–69, 1986.
A. Apostolico. Remark on the Hsu-Du new algorithm for the longest common subsequence problem. Information Processing Letters, 25:235–236, 1987.
A. Apostolico, S. Browne, and C. Guerra. Fast linear-space computations of longest common subsequences. Theoretical Computer Science, 92:3–17, 1992.
A. Apostolico and C. Guerra. The longest common subsequence problem revisited. Algorithmica, 2:315–336, 1987.
R. A. Baeza-Yates. Searching subsequences. Theoretical Computer Science, 78:363–376, 1991.
F. Y. L. Chin and C. K. Poon. A fast algorithm for computing longest common subsequences of small alphabet size. Journal of Information Processing, 13(4):463–469, 1990.
V. Chvátal and D. Sankoff. Longest common subsequence of two random sequences. Journal of Applied Probability, 12:306–315, 1975.
V. Dančík and M. Paterson. Upper bounds for the expected length of a longest common subsequence of two binary sequences. In P. Enjalbert, E. W. Mayr, and K.W.Wagner, editors, 11th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, Proceedings, pages 669–678. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 775, Springer-Verlag, 1994.
V. Dančík. Expected Length of Longest Common Subsequences. PhD thesis, University of Warwick, 1994.
J. G. Deken. Some limit results for longest common subsequences. Discrete Mathematics, 26:17–31, 1979.
D. Eppstein, Z. Galil, R. Giancarlo, and Giuseppe F. Italiano. Sparse dynamic programming I: Linear cost functions. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 39(3):519–545, 1992.
K. Hakata and H. Imai. The longest common subsequence problem for small alphabet size between many strings. In T. Ibaraki, Y. Inagaki, K. Iwama, T. Nishizeki, and M. Yamashita, editors, Algorithms and Computation, Proceedings, pages 469–478. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 650, Springer-Verlag, 1992.
D. S. Hirschberg. A linear space algorithm for computing maximal common subsequences. Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, 18(6):341–343, 1975.
D. S. Hirschberg. Algorithms for the longest common subsequence problem. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 24(4):664–675, 1977.
D. S. Hirschberg. An information-theoretic lower bound for the longest common subsequence problem. Information Processing Letters, 7(1):40–41, 1978.
W. J. Hsu and M. W. Du. New algorithms for the LCS problem. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 19:133–152, 1984.
J. W. Hunt and T. G. Szymanski. A fast algorithm for computing longest common subsequences. Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, 20(5):350–353, 1977.
R. W. Irving and C. B. Fraser. Maximal common subsequences and minimal common supersequences. To appear in CPM'94.
R. W. Irving and C. B. Fraser. Two algorithms for the longest common subsequence of three (or more) strings. In A. Apostolico, M. Crochemore, Z. Galil, and U. Manber, editors, Combinatorial Pattern Matching, Proceedings, pages 214–229. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 644, Springer-Verlag, 1992.
S. Kiran Kumar and C. Pandu Rangan. A linear-space algorithm for the LCS problem. Acta Informatica, 24:353–362, 1987.
B. F. Logan and L. A. Shepp. A variational problem for random Young tableaux. Advances in Mathematics, 26:206–222, 1977.
D. Maier. The complexity of some problems on subsequences and supersequences. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 25(2):322–336, 1978.
W. J. Masek and M. S. Paterson. A faster algorithm computing string edit distances. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 20(1):18–31, 1980.
N. Nakatsu, Y. Kambayashi, and S. Yajima. A longest common subsequence algorithm suitable for similar text strings. Acta Informatica, 18:171–179, 1982.
D. Sankoff and J. B. Kruskal. Time Warps, String Edits, and Macromolecules: The theory and practice of sequence comparison. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass, 1983.
E. Ukkonen. Algorithms for approximate string matching. Information and Control, 64:100–118, 1985.
A. M. Vershik and S. V. Kerov. Asymptotics of the plancherel measure of the symmetric group and the limiting form of Young tables. Soviet Math. Doklady, 18:527–531, 1977.
R. A. Wagner and M. J. Fischer. The string-to-string correction problem. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 21(1):168–173, 1974.
C. K. Wong and A. K. Chandra. Bounds for the string editing problem. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 23(1):13–16, 1976.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Paterson, M., Dančík, V. (1994). Longest common subsequences. In: Prívara, I., Rovan, B., Ruzička, P. (eds) Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 1994. MFCS 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 841. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58338-6_63
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58338-6_63
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58338-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48663-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive