Algorithms on strings, trees &sequences

Algorithms on text (strings) have long been studied in computer science, and computation on molecular sequence data (strings) is at the heart of computational molecular biology. Present and potential algorithms for string computation provide a significant intersection between computer science and molecular biology.

This book is a general, rigorous treatment of algorithms that operate on character strings and sequences. It covers a wide spectrum of string algorithms from classical computer science to modem molecular biology and, when possible, integrates those two fields.

In addition to explaining current algorithms, the book emphasizes fundamental ideas and techniques that are central in today's applications and should lead to new techniques, in the future. The book contains new approaches developed for complex material, simplifying methods that have been previously for the specialist alone. Biological problems are discussed in detail to explain the reasons that many biological questions have been productively cast as string problems.

The book is written for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in computer science, or computational biology, or bio-informatics. it can be used as a main text for courses on string algorithms, or for computer science oriented courses on computational biology and is aiso a reference for professionals. The book contains over 400 exercises to reinforce presented material, and to develop additional topics.