Average-Case Optimal Approximate Circular String Matching

Abstract

Approximate string matching is the problem of finding all factors of a text \(t\) of length \(n\) that are at a distance at most \(k\) from a pattern \(x\) of length \(m\). Approximate circular string matching is the problem of finding all factors of \(t\) that are at a distance at most \(k\) from \(x\) or from any of its rotations. In this article, we present a new algorithm for approximate circular string matching under the edit distance model with optimal average-case search time \(\mathcal {O}(n(k + \log m) /m)\). Optimal average-case search time can also be achieved by the algorithms for multiple approximate string matching (Fredriksson and Navarro, 2004) using \(x\) and its rotations as the set of multiple patterns. Here we reduce the preprocessing time and space requirements compared to that approach.