suffix tree

(data structure)

Definition: A compact representation of a trie corresponding to the suffixes of a given string where all nodes with one child are merged with their parents.

Generalization (I am a kind of ...)
Patricia tree, trie.

Specialization (... is a kind of me.)
multi suffix tree.

Note: A suffix tree is a Patricia tree corresponding to the suffixes of a given string. A directed acyclic word graph (DAWG) is a more compact form.

The newer suffix array has replaced the suffix tree as the data structure of choice in many applications.

Author: SE

Implementation

Strmat - a variety of string matching and pattern discovery algorithms (C). Christian Kreibich's libstree (C) including depth- and breadth-first traversal, string update, and examples like LCS. Mark Nelson's great Fast String Searching With Suffix Trees (C++) explains Ukkonen's linear-time algorithm. Dr. Dobb's Journal, August, 1996. (C++ and Pascal).

More information

Explanations of and comparisons between tries and suffix trees.

Edward M. McCreight, A space-economical suffix tree construction algorithm, Journal of the ACM, 23:262-272, 1976.

Esko Ukkonen, On-line construction of suffix trees, Algorithmica, 14(3):249-260, September 1995.
A linear time, forward construction algorithm. See Wikipedia entry for links to PDF of Ukkonen's paper.

Go to the Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures home page.

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.

Entry modified 7 December 2007.
HTML page formatted Fri Dec 7 14:30:31 2007.

Cite this as:
Stefan Edelkamp, "suffix tree", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed., U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 7 December 2007. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/suffixtree.html