Practical String Searching

posted August 25, 2014 by Stephan Brumme

Motivation

mygrep

grep

memchr

memcmp

fgrep

Live Demo

cat enwik8 > /dev/zero

"

\

Search Phrase:

Algorithm Tool Matches Time (please enter search phrase and click "Go !"

License

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software. Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions: 1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required. 2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software. 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.zlib License

Library

one has the same parameters as strstr and works on NULL-terminated strings

and works on NULL-terminated strings and the second requires the length of each string (in bytes)

NULL

hide parameters const char* searchSimpleString(const char* haystack, const char* needle); const char* searchSimple (const char* haystack , size_t haystackLength, const char* needle , size_t needleLength);

mygrep

fgrep

show mygrep // ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // mygrep.c // Copyright (c) 2014,2019 Stephan Brumme. All rights reserved. // see http://create.stephan-brumme.com/disclaimer.html // // gcc -O3 -std=c99 -Wall -pedantic search.c mygrep.c -o mygrep // file size limited to available memory size because whole file is loaded into RAM // enable GNU extensions, such as memmem() #ifndef _GNU_SOURCE #define _GNU_SOURCE #endif #ifdef _MSC_VER /// GNU C++ has a super-optimized version of memmem() which Visual C++ lacks, here is a simple replacement using a function reference #define memmem searchNative #define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS #endif #include "search.h" #include <string.h> // memmem() #include <stdio. h > // printf() #include <stdlib. h > // malloc() enum Algorithm { UseBest , UseStrStr , UseMemMem , UseSimple , UseNative , UseKnuthMorrisPratt , UseBoyerMooreHorspool , UseBitap , UseRabinKarp } algorithm; enum { ShowLines = 0 , ShowCountOnly = 1 } display; int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { const char* syntax = "Syntax: ./mygrep searchphrase filename [--native|--memmem|--strstr|--simple|--knuthmorrispratt|--boyermoorehorspool|--bitap|--rabinkarp] [-c]

" ; if ( argc < 3 || argc > 5 ) { printf( "%s" , syntax ); return - 1 ; } // don't show lines, just count them display = ShowLines ; if ( argc == 5 && strcmp( argv [ 4 ], "-c" ) == 0 ) display = ShowCountOnly ; // use safer memmem() by default algorithm = UseBest ; if ( argc >= 4 ) { if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--native" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseNative ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--memmem" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseMemMem ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--strstr" ) == 0 ) // be careful: buffer overruns possible !!! algorithm = UseStrStr ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--simple" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseSimple ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--knuthmorrispratt" ) == 0 || strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--kmp" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseKnuthMorrisPratt ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--boyermoorehorspool" ) == 0 || strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--bmh" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseBoyerMooreHorspool ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--bitap" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseBitap ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "--rabinkarp" ) == 0 ) algorithm = UseRabinKarp ; else if ( strcmp ( argv [ 3 ], "-c" ) == 0 ) display = ShowCountOnly ; else { printf( "%s" , syntax ); return - 2 ; } } // open file FILE* file = fopen( argv [ 2 ], "rb" ); if (! file ) { printf( "Failed to open file

" ); return - 3 ; } // determine its filesize fseek( file , 0 , SEEK_END); long filesize = ftell( file ); fseek ( file , 0 , SEEK_SET); if ( filesize == 0 ) { printf( "Empty file

" ); return - 4 ; } // allocate memory and read the whole file at once char* data = (char*) malloc( filesize + 2 ); if (! data ) { printf( "Out of memory

" ); return - 5 ; } fread( data , filesize , 1 , file ); fclose( file ); // pad data to avoid buffer overruns data [ filesize ] = '

' ; data [ filesize + 1 ] = 0 ; // what we look for const char* needle = argv [ 1 ]; const size_t needleLength = strlen( needle ); // where we look for const char* haystack = data ; const size_t haystackLength = filesize ; // fence const char* haystackEnd = haystack + haystackLength ; // "native" and "Boyer-Moore-Horspool" are in almost all cases the best choice if ( algorithm == UseBest ) { // when needle is longer than about 16 bytes, Boyer-Moore-Horspool is faster if ( needleLength <= 16 ) algorithm = UseNative ; else algorithm = UseBoyerMooreHorspool ; } // search until done ... unsigned int numHits = 0 ; const char* current = haystack ; for (;;) { // offset of current hit from the beginning of the haystack size_t bytesDone = current - haystack ; size_t bytesLeft = haystackLength - bytesDone ; switch ( algorithm ) { case UseMemMem : // correctly handled zeros, unfortunately much slower { const char* before = current ; current = (const char*) memmem ( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); // workaround for strange GCC behavior, else I get a memory access violation if ( current ) { int diff = current - before ; current = before + diff ; } } break; case UseStrStr : // much faster but has problems when bytes in haystack are zero, // requires both to be properly zero-terminated current = strstr ( current , needle ); break; case UseSimple : // brute-force current = searchSimple ( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); break; case UseNative : // brute-force for short needles, based on compiler-optimized functions current = searchNative ( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); break; case UseKnuthMorrisPratt : // Knuth-Morris-Pratt current = searchKnuthMorrisPratt ( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); break; case UseBoyerMooreHorspool : // Boyer-Moore-Horspool current = searchBoyerMooreHorspool( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); break; case UseBitap : // Bitap / Baeza-Yates-Gonnet algorithm current = searchBitap ( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); break; case UseRabinKarp : // Rabin-Karp algorithm current = searchRabinKarp ( current , bytesLeft , needle , needleLength ); break; default: printf( "Unknown search algorithm

" ); return - 6 ; } // needle not found in the remaining haystack if (! current ) break; numHits ++; // find end of line const char* right = current ; while ( right != haystackEnd && * right != '

' ) right ++; if ( display == ShowCountOnly ) { current = right ; continue; } // find beginning of line const char* left = current ; while ( left != haystack && * left != '

' ) left --; if (* left == '

' && left != haystackEnd ) left ++; // send line to standard output size_t lineLength = right - left ; fwrite( left , lineLength , 1 , stdout); // and append a newline putchar( '

' ); // don't search this line anymore current = right ; } if ( display == ShowCountOnly ) printf( "%d

" , numHits ); // exit with error code 1 if nothing found return numHits == 0 ? 1 : 0 ; }

Changelog

version 1 August 25, 2014 initial release Git tag practical_string_searching_v1



Download

CRC32:

d437e7e5

MD5:

6f41563c56ccb5fd8dc9210446c88c44

SHA1:

e761193de07d6b44f74e33dc9dcff0eab13162a4

SHA256:

ae13eb72366d3b30e17229de93989299fa3d352c351567de78f219702c47fe6b

CRC32:

9ac5957d

MD5:

59659ac5b358108fb5395682466fa364

SHA1:

8d4e2da0d19f6f8dbdbf118b6a5a4cd330305dcd

SHA256:

6ed64272eb2181d4a4fa004cedc12637ded57ee8e4da06e0612197169bd6f7df

CRC32:

48d0c214

MD5:

7af4d4c5f6497dcdac1685ab8ab90f4e

SHA1:

655ed76cb3dc0c4dd26cc6957e18298b6d4ef017

SHA256:

9e7775a587000b1ae9a7c7a868b279a65bfac30d49bd6e4329f7ea9a903810f7

Stay up-to-date:

git clone https://create.stephan-brumme.com/practical-string-searching/.git

GitHub mirror:

Simple Algorithm a.k.a. Brute Force

hide simple algorithm (strings) const char* searchSimpleString(const char* haystack, const char* needle) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle ) return NULL ; // until the end of haystack (or a match, of course) while (* haystack ) { // compare current haystack to needle size_t i = 0 ; while ( needle [i]) { if ( haystack [i] != needle [i]) break; i++; } // needle fully matched (reached terminating NUL-byte) if (! needle [i]) return haystack ; // no match, step forward haystack ++; } // not found return NULL ; }

show simple algorithm (binary) const char* searchSimple(const char* haystack, size_t haystackLength, const char* needle, size_t needleLength) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle || haystackLength < needleLength ) return NULL ; // match impossible if less than needleLength bytes left haystackLength -= needleLength - 1 ; // points beyond last considered start byte const char* haystackEnd = haystack + haystackLength ; // until the end of haystack (or a match, of course ...) while ( haystack != haystackEnd ) { // compare current haystack to needle size_t i = 0 ; for (; i < needleLength ; i++) if ( haystack [i] != needle [i]) break; // needle fully matched if (i == needleLength ) return haystack ; // no match, step forward haystack ++; } // not found return NULL ; }

Native Algorithm

memchr

memcmp

#include <string.h>

memcmp

hide native algorithm (binary) const char* searchNative(const char* haystack, size_t haystackLength, const char* needle, size_t needleLength) { // uses memchr() for the first byte, then memcmp to verify it's a valid match // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle || haystackLength < needleLength ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // shorter code for just one character if ( needleLength == 1 ) return (const char*)memchr( haystack , * needle , haystackLength ); haystackLength -= needleLength - 1 ; // points beyond last considered byte const char* haystackEnd = haystack + haystackLength ; // look for first byte while (( haystack = (const char*) memchr ( haystack , * needle , haystackLength )) != NULL ) { // does last byte match, too ? if ( haystack [ needleLength - 1 ] == needle [ needleLength - 1 ]) // okay, perform full comparison, skip first and last byte (if just 2 bytes => already finished) if ( needleLength == 2 || memcmp( haystack + 1 , needle + 1 , needleLength - 2 ) == 0 ) return haystack ; // compute number of remaining bytes haystackLength = haystackEnd - haystack ; if ( haystackLength == 0 ) return NULL ; // keep going haystack ++; haystackLength --; } // needle not found in haystack return NULL ; }

memmem

memmem

_GNU_SOURCE

#define _GNU_SOURCE #include <string.h> void* memmem(const void* haystack, size_t haystacklen, const void* needle, size_t needlelen);

strstr

strstr

strstr

#include <string.h> char* strstr(const char* haystack, const char* needle);

Knuth-Morris-Pratt Algorithm

needleLength

MaxLocalMemory

hide Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm (strings) const char* searchKnuthMorrisPrattString(const char* haystack, const char* needle) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything size_t needleLength = strlen( needle ); if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // try to use stack instead of heap (avoid slow memory allocations if possible) const size_t MaxLocalMemory = 256 ; int localMemory[ MaxLocalMemory ]; int* skip = localMemory ; // stack too small => allocate heap if ( needleLength > MaxLocalMemory ) { skip = (int*)malloc( needleLength * sizeof(int)); if ( skip == NULL ) return NULL ; } // prepare skip table skip [ 0 ] = - 1 ; int i; for (i = 0 ; needle [i]; i++) { skip [i + 1 ] = skip [i] + 1 ; while ( skip [i + 1 ] > 0 && needle [i] != needle [ skip [i + 1 ] - 1 ]) skip [i + 1 ] = skip [ skip [i + 1 ] - 1 ] + 1 ; } // assume no match const char* result = NULL ; int shift = 0 ; // search while (* haystack ) { // look for a matching character while ( shift >= 0 && * haystack != needle [ shift ]) shift = skip [ shift ]; // single step forward in needle and haystack haystack ++; shift ++; // reached end of needle => hit if (! needle [ shift ]) { result = haystack - shift ; break; } } // clean up heap (if used) if ( skip != localMemory ) free( skip ); // points to match position or NULL if not found return result ; }

show Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm (binary) const char* searchKnuthMorrisPratt(const char* haystack, size_t haystackLength, const char* needle, size_t needleLength) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle || haystackLength < needleLength ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // try to use stack instead of heap (avoid slow memory allocations if possible) const size_t MaxLocalMemory = 256 ; int localMemory[ MaxLocalMemory ]; int* skip = localMemory ; // stack too small => allocate heap if ( needleLength > MaxLocalMemory ) { skip = (int*)malloc( needleLength * sizeof(int)); if ( skip == NULL ) return NULL ; } // prepare skip table skip [ 0 ] = - 1 ; size_t i; for (i = 0 ; i < needleLength ; i++) { skip [i + 1 ] = skip [i] + 1 ; while ( skip [i + 1 ] > 0 && needle [i] != needle [ skip [i + 1 ] - 1 ]) skip [i + 1 ] = skip [ skip [i + 1 ]- 1 ] + 1 ; } // assume no match const char* result = NULL ; const char* haystackEnd = haystack + haystackLength ; int shift = 0 ; // search while ( haystack != haystackEnd ) { // look for a matching character while ( shift >= 0 && * haystack != needle [ shift ]) shift = skip [ shift ]; // single step forward in needle and haystack haystack ++; shift ++; // reached end of needle => hit if ((size_t) shift == needleLength ) { result = haystack - shift ; break; } } // clean up heap (if used) if ( skip != localMemory ) free( skip ); // points to match position or NULL if not found return result ; }

Boyer-Moore-Horspool Algorithm

show Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm (strings) const char* searchBoyerMooreHorspoolString(const char* haystack, const char* needle) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle ) return NULL ; // call routine for non-text data return searchBoyerMooreHorspool( haystack , strlen( haystack ), needle , strlen( needle )); }

hide Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm (binary) const char* searchBoyerMooreHorspool(const char* haystack, size_t haystackLength, const char* needle, size_t needleLength) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle || haystackLength < needleLength ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // find right-most position of each character // and store its distance to the end of needle // default value: when a character in haystack isn't in needle, then // we can jump forward needleLength bytes const size_t NumChar = 1 << ( 8 * sizeof(char)); size_t skip[ NumChar ]; size_t i; for (i = 0 ; i < NumChar ; i++) skip [i] = needleLength ; // figure out for each character of the needle how much we can skip // (if a character appears multiple times in needle, later occurrences // overwrite previous ones, i.e. the value of skip[x] decreases) const size_t lastPos = needleLength - 1 ; size_t pos; for ( pos = 0 ; pos < lastPos ; pos ++) skip [(unsigned char) needle [ pos ]] = lastPos - pos ; // now walk through the haystack while ( haystackLength >= needleLength ) { // all characters match ? for (i = lastPos ; haystack [i] == needle [i]; i--) if (i == 0 ) return haystack ; // no match, jump ahead unsigned char marker = (unsigned char) haystack [ lastPos ]; haystackLength -= skip [ marker ]; haystack += skip [ marker ]; } // needle not found in haystack return NULL ; }

Bitap Algorithm

hide Bitap algorithm (strings) const char* searchBitapString(const char* haystack, const char* needle) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything size_t needleLength = strlen( needle ); if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // create bit masks for each possible byte / ASCII character // each mask is as wide as needleLength const size_t MaxBitWidth = 8 * sizeof(int) - 1 ; // only if needleLength bits fit into an integer (minus 1), the algorithm will be fast if ( needleLength > MaxBitWidth ) return searchSimpleString( haystack , needle ); // one mask per allowed character (1 byte => 2^8 => 256) // where all bits are set except those where the character is found in needle const size_t AlphabetSize = 256 ; unsigned int masks[ AlphabetSize ]; size_t i; for (i = 0 ; i < AlphabetSize ; i++) masks [i] = ~ 0 ; for (i = 0 ; i < needleLength ; i++) masks [(unsigned char) needle [i]] &= ~( 1 << i); // initial state mask has all bits set except the lowest one unsigned int state = ~ 1 ; const unsigned int FullMatch = 1 << needleLength ; while (* haystack ) { // update the bit array state |= masks [(unsigned char)* haystack ]; state <<= 1 ; // if an unset bit "bubbled up" we have a match if (( state & FullMatch ) == 0 ) return ( haystack - needleLength ) + 1 ; haystack ++; } // needle not found in haystack return NULL ; }

show Bitap algorithm (binary) const char* searchBitap(const char* haystack, size_t haystackLength, const char* needle, size_t needleLength) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle || haystackLength < needleLength ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // create bit masks for each possible byte / ASCII character // each mask is as wide as needleLength const size_t MaxBitWidth = 8 * sizeof(int) - 1 ; // only if needleLength bits fit into an integer (minus 1), the algorithm will be fast if ( needleLength > MaxBitWidth ) return searchNative( haystack , haystackLength , needle , needleLength ); // one mask per allowed character (1 byte => 2^8 => 256) // where all bits are set except those where the character is found in needle const size_t AlphabetSize = 256 ; unsigned int masks[ AlphabetSize ]; size_t i; for (i = 0 ; i < AlphabetSize ; i++) masks [i] = ~ 0 ; for (i = 0 ; i < needleLength ; i++) masks [(unsigned char) needle [i]] &= ~( 1 << i); // points beyond last considered byte const char* haystackEnd = haystack + haystackLength ; // initial state mask has all bits set except the lowest one unsigned int state = ~ 1 ; const unsigned int FullMatch = 1 << needleLength ; while ( haystack != haystackEnd ) { // update the bit array state |= masks [(unsigned char)* haystack ]; state <<= 1 ; // if an unset bit "bubbled up" we have a match if (( state & FullMatch ) == 0 ) return ( haystack - needleLength ) + 1 ; haystack ++; } // needle not found in haystack return NULL ; }

Rabin-Karp Algorithm

memcmp

needle

hide Rabin-Karp algorithm (strings) const char* searchRabinKarpString(const char* haystack, const char* needle) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything if (!* needle ) return haystack ; // find first match of the first letter haystack = strchr( haystack , * needle ); if (! haystack ) return NULL ; // now first letter of haystack and needle is identical // let's compute the sum of all characters of needle unsigned int hashNeedle = * needle ; unsigned int hashHaystack = * haystack ; const char* scanNeedle = needle + 1 ; const char* scanHaystack = haystack + 1 ; while (* scanNeedle && * scanHaystack ) { hashNeedle += * scanNeedle ++; hashHaystack += * scanHaystack ++; } // if scanNeedle doesn't point to zero, then we have too little haystack if (* scanNeedle ) return NULL ; // length of needle const size_t needleLength = scanNeedle - needle ; // walk through haystack and roll the hash for (;;) { // identical hash ? if ( hashHaystack == hashNeedle ) { // can be a false positive, therefore must check all characters again if (memcmp( haystack , needle , needleLength ) == 0 ) return haystack ; } // no more bytes left ? if (!* scanHaystack ) break; // update hash hashHaystack -= * haystack ++; hashHaystack += * scanHaystack ++; } // needle not found in haystack return NULL ; }

show Rabin-Karp algorithm (binary) const char* searchRabinKarp(const char* haystack, size_t haystackLength, const char* needle, size_t needleLength) { // detect invalid input if (! haystack || ! needle || haystackLength < needleLength ) return NULL ; // empty needle matches everything if ( needleLength == 0 ) return haystack ; // one byte beyond last position where a match can begin const char* haystackEnd = haystack + haystackLength - needleLength + 1 ; // find first match of the first letter haystack = (const char*)memchr( haystack , * needle , haystackLength ); if (! haystack ) return NULL ; // now first letter of haystack and needle is identical // let's compute the sum of all characters of needle unsigned int hashNeedle = 0 ; unsigned int hashHaystack = 0 ; size_t i; for (i = 0 ; i < needleLength ; i++) { // not enough haystack left ? if (! haystack [i]) return NULL ; hashNeedle += needle [i]; hashHaystack += haystack [i]; } // walk through haystack and roll the hash computation while ( haystack != haystackEnd ) { // identical hash ? if ( hashHaystack == hashNeedle ) { // can be a false positive, therefore must check all characters again if (memcmp( haystack , needle , needleLength ) == 0 ) return haystack ; } // update hash hashHaystack += *( haystack + needleLength ); hashHaystack -= * haystack ++; } // needle not found in haystack return NULL ; }

There is a huge number of scientific papers on fast, faster and super-fast string searching algorithms.They usually prove theoretical performance in O-Notation and most papers cover memory consumption as well.However, theoretical performance isn't always the same as practical performance. That's why I always want to measure real-world throughput: this article presents hopefully understandable C implementations of the most commonstring search algorithms.In addition I also wrote a simple tool calledthat prints all lines of a file where a search phrase is found.It doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of the Unix toolbut achieves similar or sometimes even better speed.A direct comparison can be done online , just scroll down to the Live Demo.Playing around with various search phrases you will easily see the plain and simple truth:A slightly modified version based onandis often several times faster than the second-fastest contender - just because this simple algorithm can make efficient use of modern CPUs' optimized string opcodes and fits well into the caches.These generic routines might slow down considerably in worst-case scenarios, like DNA analysis (small alphabet and many repeated similar parts).And yes,is damn fast.This demo scans through the first 100 MByte of Wikipedia (well, an older snapshot dating back to March 3, 2006) on the server.Before search starts, the file is mapped into the Linux file cache in order to avoid disk latencies ().execution times can vary significantly - depending on overall server load.Special characters such asorare disabled to prevent potential security breaches into my server.The search algorithms actually can search for these special characters (as plain ASCII symbols).Don't confuse it with meta characters for regular expressions; those are not supported.Search is case-sensitive.This code is licensed under the zlib License My library is written in C and compiles without problems using GCC/G++, CLang and Visual C++.There are two functions for each algorithm:Both return the location of the first match or. An empty needle matches the beginning of the haystack.Invalid pointers are detected and NULL will be returned.Unicode is not supported, but the second processes binary data (which often contains NULL bytes) without problems:is a very simple tool to compare performance of all mentioned string search algorithms.Similar toit scans a file for a given search phrase and prints all lines where a match was found.It's bare bones, therefore input pipes aren't supported, and neither is memory mapping used.Click onto see the full source code.Git users: scroll down to the repository linkLatest release:, size:bytes,linesLatest release:, size:kBytes,linesLatest release:, size:kBytes,linesIf you encounter any bugs/problems or have ideas for improving future versions, please write me an email: create@stephan-brumme.com The simple algorithm consists of two nested loops: The outer loop walks through all bytes/characters of the haystack and the inner loop compares against the needle. As soon as a match was detected, the algorithm aborts and returns its position inside the haystack.This algorithm is pretty much identical to the Simple Algorithm but uses the functionto locate the first character and then compares the remainder withThese two function are standard C and can be found in. They are implemented extremely efficient and often compare multiple bytes at once.As you can see in the Live Demo , it's multiple times faster than the Simple Algorithm in its original form.About 20 lines of the code are spent on speeding up the case of a two-character needle. Optimizing for the three-character case as well doesn't help much becausehandles it pretty well.The phraseis an invention of mine. I just ran out of ideas how to call it ...is a GNU extension to the C standard library and not available for Visual C++.Its MAN page says it was broken in early releases and only became stable in glibc 2.1.You need to definein your code:is the standard C string search function.Implementations vary but my observation is thatis by far the slowest algorithms on GCC, CLang and Visual C++ (well, their respective Standard C libraries).The Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm improves on the simple algorithm by skipping multiple characters in case of a mismatch.It's main drawback is the pre-processing stage which builds a table withpointers/offsets.You can find a detailled description on Wikipedia including examples.My code tries to avoid dynamic allocation of the table if the search phrase is short (and puts the stack on the stack).Change the constantif you have more/less stack available in your system.In contrast to the Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm, the Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm tries to match the end of the search phrase first.It needs a temporary table, too, but its size is constant and depends on the size of the alphabet which is 256 for ASCII strings.The initialisation is a bit more costly.Again, Wikipedia is a good source of information if you want to go deeper into detail.The Bitap algorithm is often called Baeza-Yates-Gonnet algorithm. It's original purpose was approximate string matching.The code below is a simplified version and only supports exact string matching.The algorithm is based on bit manipulation. Each of needle's characters is represented by a bit.My implementation is restricted to at most 32 byte long needles on 32-bit systems or at most 64 byte long needles on 64-bit systems.A temporary table with 256 words is created on the stack.It's worth noting that the Bitap algorithm's speed is only affected by the length of haystack and needle, not by their content.In other words: it's very predictable, which might be extremeful interesting for realtime systems.Please check Wikipedia for further information.The Rabin-Karp algorithm is based on rolling hashes. Due to hash collisions false positives may be found.Therefore each potential match must be checked again (simplest way:).The main strength of this algorithm is its ability to search for multiple phrases in one pass.However, I didn't implement this feature to keep things simple. With a singlethere is no need for memory allocation, too.My hashing routine is a basic additive hash. More elaborate hashes produce way less hash collisions but can be considerably slower.And, of course, Wikipedia is your friend when it comes to specifics.