Algorithms on Strings, Trees and Sequences

Traditionally an area of study in computer science, string algorithms have, in recent years, become an increasingly important part of biology, particularly genetics. This volume is a comprehensive look at computer algorithms for string processing. In addition to pure computer science, Gusfield adds extensive discussions on biological problems that are cast as string problems and on methods developed to solve them. This text emphasizes the fundamental ideas and techniques central to today's applications. New approaches to this complex material simplify methods that up to now have been for the specialist alone. With over 400 exercises to reinforce the material and develop additional topics, the book is suitable as a text for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in computer science, computational biology, or bio-informatics.

String algorithms are a traditional area of study in computer science. In recent years their importance has grown dramatically with the huge increase of electronically stored text and of molecular sequence data produced by various genome projects. This book explains a wide range of computer methods for string processing. It also contains extensive discussions on biological problems that are cast as string problems, and on techniques to solve them. The book is both a reference for computer scientists and computer-oriented professionals in biology and bio-informatics and a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on string algorithms and on computational biology.