Longest palindrome in a string using suffix tree

Question

I was trying to find the longest palindrome in a string. The brute force solution takes O(n^3) time. I read that there is a linear time algorithm for it using suffix trees. I am familiar with suffix trees and am comfortable building them. How do you use the built suffix tree to find the longest palindrome.

Answer 1

The Linear solution can be found in this Way ::

Prequisities:

(1).You must know how to construct the suffix array in O(N) or O(NlogN) time.

(2).You must know how to find the standard LCP Array ie. LCP between adjacent Suffixes i and i-1

ie . LCP [i]=LCP(suffix i in sorted array, suffix i-1 in sorted array) for (i>0).

Let S be the Original String and S' be the reverse of Original String. Lets take S="banana" as an example. Then its Reverse string S'=ananab.

Step 1: Concatenate S + # + S' to get String Str ,where # is an alphabet not present in original String.

    Concatenated String Str=S+#+S'
    Str="banana#ananab"

Step 2: Now construct the Suffix Array of the string Str.

In this example ,the suffix array is:

Suffix Number   Index   Sorted Suffix
0               6       #ananab
1               5       a#ananab
2               11      ab
3               3       ana#ananab
4               9       anab
5               1       anana#ananab
6               7       ananab
7               12      b
8               0       banana#ananab
9               4       na#ananab
10              10      nab
11              2       nana#ananab
12              8       nanab

Please Note that a suffix array is an array of integers giving the starting positions of suffixes of a string in lexicographical order.So the Array that holds Index of starting position is a suffix Array.

That is SuffixArray[]={6,5,11,3,9,1,7,12,0,4,10,2,8};

Step 3: As you had managed to construct the Suffix Array ,Now find the Longest Common Prefixes Between the adjacent suffixes.

LCP between #ananab        a#ananab          is :=0
LCP between a#ananab       ab                is :=1
LCP between ab             ana#ananab        is :=1
LCP between ana#ananab     anab              is :=3
LCP between anab           anana#ananab      is :=3
LCP between anana#ananab   ananab            is :=5
LCP between ananab         b                 is :=0
LCP between b              banana#ananab     is :=1
LCP between banana#ananab  na#ananab         is :=0
LCP between na#ananab      nab               is :=2
LCP between nab            nana#ananab       is :=2
LCP between nana#ananab nanab                is :=4

Thus LCP array LCP={0,0,1,1,3,3,5,0,1,0,2,2,4}.

Where LCP[i]=Length of Longest Common Prefix between Suffix i and suffix (i-1). (for i>0)

Step 4:

Now you have constructed a LCP array ,Use the following Logic.

    Let the length of the Longest Palindrome ,longestlength:=0 (Initially)
    Let Position:=0.
    for(int i=1;i<Len;++i)
    {
        //Note that Len=Length of Original String +"#"+ Reverse String
        if((LCP[i]>longestlength))
        {
            //Note Actual Len=Length of original Input string .
            if((suffixArray[i-1]<actuallen && suffixArray[i]>actuallen)||(suffixArray[i]<actuallen && suffixArray[i-1]>actuallen))
            {
                 //print :Calculating Longest Prefixes b/w suffixArray[i-1] AND  suffixArray[i]


                longestlength=LCP[i];
              //print The Longest Prefix b/w them  is ..
              //print The Length is :longestlength:=LCP[i];
                Position=suffixArray[i];
            }
        }
    }
    So the length of Longest Palindrome :=longestlength;
    and the longest palindrome is:=Str[position,position+longestlength-1];

Execution Example ::

    actuallen=Length of banana:=6
    Len=Length of "banana#ananab" :=13.

Calculating Longest Prefixes b/w a#ananab AND  ab
The Longest Prefix b/w them  is :a 
The Length is :longestlength:= 1 
Position:= 11




Calculating Longest Prefixes b/w ana#ananab AND  anab
The Longest Prefix b/w them  is :ana
The Length is :longestlength:= 3 
Position:=9



Calculating Longest Prefixes b/w anana#ananab AND  ananab
The Longest Prefix b/w them  is :anana
The Length is :longestlength:= 5 
Position:= 7

So Answer =5.
And the Longest Palindrome is :=Str[7,7+5-1]=anana

Just Make a Note ::

The if condition in Step 4 basically refers that ,in each iteration(i) ,if I take the suffixes s1(i) and s2(i-1) then ,"s1 must contains # and s2 must not contain # " OR "s2 must contains # and s1 must not contains # ".

 |(1:BANANA#ANANAB)|leaf
tree:|
     |     |      |      |(7:#ANANAB)|leaf
     |     |      |(5:NA)|
     |     |      |      |(13:B)|leaf
     |     |(3:NA)|
     |     |      |(7:#ANANAB)|leaf
     |     |      |
     |     |      |(13:B)|leaf
     |(2:A)|
     |     |(7:#ANANAB)|leaf
     |     |
     |     |(13:B)|leaf
     |
     |      |      |(7:#ANANAB)|leaf
     |      |(5:NA)|
     |      |      |(13:B)|leaf
     |(3:NA)|
     |      |(7:#ANANAB)|leaf
     |      |
     |      |(13:B)|leaf
     |
     |(7:#ANANAB)|leaf