String-searching algorithm
algorithm which searches for patterns within strings
A string-searching algorithm, sometimes called string-matching algorithm, is an algorithm that searches a body of text for portions that match by pattern.
A basic example of string searching is when the pattern and the searched text are arrays of elements of an alphabet (finite set) Σ. Σ may be a human language alphabet, for example, the letters A through Z and other applications may use a binary alphabet (Σ = {0,1}) or a DNA alphabet (Σ = {A,C,G,T}) in bioinformatics.
In practice, the method of feasible string-search algorithm may be affected by the string encoding. In particular, if a variable-width encoding is in use, then it may be slower to find the Nth character, perhaps requiring time proportional to N. This may significantly slow some search algorithms. One of many possible solutions is to search for the sequence of code units instead, but doing so may produce false matches unless the encoding is specifically designed to avoid it.
Overview
The most basic case of string searching involves one (often very long) string, sometimes called the haystack, and one (often very short) string, sometimes called the needle. The goal is to find one or more occurrences of the needle within the haystack. For example, one might search for to within:
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
One might request the first occurrence of "to", which is the fourth word; or all occurrences, of which there are 3; or the last, which is the fifth word from the end.
Very commonly, however, various constraints are added.
The public source identifies “String-searching algorithm” as algorithm which searches for patterns within strings. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around String-searching, algorithm and searches.
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This entry incorporates text from “String-searching algorithm” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.