String Algorithms

Abstract

This chapter deals with topics related to string processing. Section 14.1 presents the trie structure which maintains a set of strings. After this, dynamic programming algorithms for determining longest common subsequences and edit distances are discussed. Section 14.2 discusses the string hashing technique which is a general tool for creating efficient string algorithms. The idea is to compare hash values of strings instead of their characters, which allows us to compare strings in constant time. Section 14.3 introduces the Z-algorithm which determines for each string position the longest substring which is also a prefix of the string. The Z-algorithm is an alternative for many string problems that can also be solved using hashing. Section 14.4 discusses the suffix array structure, which can be used to solve some more advanced string problems.