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Approximate string-matching and the q-gram distance

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Sequences II

Abstract

Some results are summarized on approximate string-matching with a string distance function that is computable in linear time and is based on the so-called q-grams (‘n-grams’). An algorithm is given for the associated string matching problem that finds the locally best approximate occurrences of pattern P, ∣P∣ = m, in text T, ∣T∣ = n, in time O(n log(m - q)). The occurrences with distance ≤ k can be found in time O(nlog k). This should be compared to the edit distance based k-differences problem for which the best algorithm currently known needs O(kn). The q-gram distance yields a lower bound for the unit cost edit distance, which leads to a fast hybrid algorithm for the k-differences problem.

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland and by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany). The work was done during a visit to the Institut für Informatik, University of Freiburg.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Teollisuuskatu 23, SF-00510, Helsinki, Finland

    Esko Ukkonen

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  1. Esko Ukkonen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

    Renato Capocelli

  2. Dipartimento di Informatica ed Applicazioni, Universitá di Salerno, 84081, Baronissi (SA), Italy

    Alfredo De Santis  & Ugo Vaccaro  & 

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Ukkonen, E. (1993). Approximate string-matching and the q-gram distance. In: Capocelli, R., De Santis, A., Vaccaro, U. (eds) Sequences II. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9323-8_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9323-8_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-9325-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-9323-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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