String Matching Algorithms — KMP, Rabin-Karp, & Suffix Arrays Explained | Chapter 32 in Introduction to Algorithms
String Matching Algorithms — KMP, Rabin-Karp, & Suffix Arrays Explained | Chapter 32 in Introduction to Algorithms Chapter 32 of Introduction to Algorithms tackles the fundamental problem of string matching — finding all occurrences of a pattern string P within a larger text string T. This topic underlies critical applications in text search, data compression, bioinformatics, and pattern recognition. The chapter presents a spectrum of algorithms including the naive method, Rabin-Karp , finite automata , Knuth-Morris-Pratt (KMP) , and suffix arrays , each offering different trade-offs between preprocessing complexity and matching efficiency. Watch the video above for a guided breakdown of each algorithm and when to use them. Subscribe to Last Minute Lecture for more textbook-based algorithm tutorials. Naive String-Matching Algorithm The naive approach checks for a match of the pattern P at every possible shift within T. For each shift s, it compares P[1 to m] to T[s+1...