Naive algorithm for Pattern Searching

Given a text txt[0..n-1] and a pattern pat[0..m-1], write a function search(char pat[], char txt[]) that prints all occurrences of pat[] in txt[]. You may assume that n > m.

Examples:

Input:  txt[] = "THIS IS A TEST TEXT"
        pat[] = "TEST"
Output: Pattern found at index 10

Input:  txt[] =  "AABAACAADAABAABA"
        pat[] =  "AABA"
Output: Pattern found at index 0
        Pattern found at index 9
        Pattern found at index 12

Pattern searching is an important problem in computer science. When we do search for a string in notepad/word file or browser or database, pattern searching algorithms are used to show the search results.

Recommended: Please solve it on “PRACTICE ” first, before moving on to the solution.

Naive Pattern Searching:
Slide the pattern over text one by one and check for a match. If a match is found, then slides by 1 again to check for subsequent matches.

C++

// C++ program for Naive Pattern 
// Searching algorithm 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 
  
void search(char* pat, char* txt) 
{ 
    int M = strlen(pat); 
    int N = strlen(txt); 
  
    /* A loop to slide pat[] one by one */
    for (int i = 0; i <= N - M; i++) { 
        int j; 
  
        /* For current index i, check for pattern match */
        for (j = 0; j < M; j++) 
            if (txt[i + j] != pat[j]) 
                break; 
  
        if (j == M) // if pat[0...M-1] = txt[i, i+1, ...i+M-1] 
            cout << "Pattern found at index "
                 << i << endl; 
    } 
} 
  
// Driver Code 
int main() 
{ 
    char txt[] = "AABAACAADAABAAABAA"; 
    char pat[] = "AABA"; 
    search(pat, txt); 
    return 0; 
} 
  
// This code is contributed 
// by Akanksha Rai 

C

// C program for Naive Pattern Searching algorithm 
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <string.h> 
  
void search(char* pat, char* txt) 
{ 
    int M = strlen(pat); 
    int N = strlen(txt); 
  
    /* A loop to slide pat[] one by one */
    for (int i = 0; i <= N - M; i++) { 
        int j; 
  
        /* For current index i, check for pattern match */
        for (j = 0; j < M; j++) 
            if (txt[i + j] != pat[j]) 
                break; 
  
        if (j == M) // if pat[0...M-1] = txt[i, i+1, ...i+M-1] 
            printf("Pattern found at index %d \n", i); 
    } 
} 
  
/* Driver program to test above function */
int main() 
{ 
    char txt[] = "AABAACAADAABAAABAA"; 
    char pat[] = "AABA"; 
    search(pat, txt); 
    return 0; 
} 

Java

// Java program for Naive Pattern Searching 
public class NaiveSearch { 
  
    public static void search(String txt, String pat) 
    { 
        int M = pat.length(); 
        int N = txt.length(); 
  
        /* A loop to slide pat one by one */
        for (int i = 0; i <= N - M; i++) { 
  
            int j; 
  
            /* For current index i, check for pattern  
              match */
            for (j = 0; j < M; j++) 
                if (txt.charAt(i + j) != pat.charAt(j)) 
                    break; 
  
            if (j == M) // if pat[0...M-1] = txt[i, i+1, ...i+M-1] 
                System.out.println("Pattern found at index " + i); 
        } 
    } 
  
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        String txt = "AABAACAADAABAAABAA"; 
        String pat = "AABA"; 
        search(txt, pat); 
    } 
} 
// This code is contributed by Harikishore 

C#

// C# program for Naive Pattern Searching 
using System; 
  
class GFG { 
  
    public static void search(String txt, String pat) 
    { 
        int M = pat.Length; 
        int N = txt.Length; 
  
        /* A loop to slide pat one by one */
        for (int i = 0; i <= N - M; i++) { 
            int j; 
  
            /* For current index i, check for pattern  
            match */
            for (j = 0; j < M; j++) 
                if (txt[i + j] != pat[j]) 
                    break; 
  
            // if pat[0...M-1] = txt[i, i+1, ...i+M-1] 
            if (j == M) 
                Console.WriteLine("Pattern found at index " + i); 
        } 
    } 
  
    // Driver code 
    public static void Main() 
    { 
        String txt = "AABAACAADAABAAABAA"; 
        String pat = "AABA"; 
        search(txt, pat); 
    } 
} 
// This code is Contributed by Sam007 

PHP

<?php 
// PHP program for Naive Pattern 
// Searching algorithm 
  
function search($pat, $txt) 
{ 
    $M = strlen($pat); 
    $N = strlen($txt); 
  
    // A loop to slide pat[]  
    // one by one  
    for ($i = 0; $i <= $N - $M; $i++) 
    { 
  
        // For current index i,  
        // check for pattern match  
        for ($j = 0; $j < $M; $j++) 
            if ($txt[$i + $j] != $pat[$j]) 
                break; 
  
        // if pat[0...M-1] =  
        // txt[i, i+1, ...i+M-1] 
        if ($j == $M)  
            echo "Pattern found at index ", $i."\n"; 
    } 
} 
  
    // Driver Code 
    $txt = "AABAACAADAABAAABAA"; 
    $pat = "AABA"; 
    search($pat, $txt); 
      
// This code is contributed by Sam007 
?> 

Python3

# Python3 program for Naive Pattern 
# Searching algorithm 
def search(pat, txt): 
    M = len(pat) 
    N = len(txt) 
  
    # A loop to slide pat[] one by one */ 
    for i in range(N - M + 1): 
        j = 0
          
        # For current index i, check  
        # for pattern match */ 
        while(j < M): 
            if (txt[i + j] != pat[j]): 
                break
            j += 1
  
        if (j == M):  
            print("Pattern found at index ", i) 
  
# Driver Code 
if __name__ == '__main__': 
    txt = "AABAACAADAABAAABAA"
    pat = "AABA"
    search(pat, txt) 
  
# This code is contributed  
# by PrinciRaj1992 

Output:

Pattern found at index 0 
Pattern found at index 9 
Pattern found at index 13

What is the best case?
The best case occurs when the first character of the pattern is not present in text at all.

txt[] = "AABCCAADDEE"; 
pat[] = "FAA";

The number of comparisons in best case is O(n).

What is the worst case ?
The worst case of Naive Pattern Searching occurs in following scenarios.
1) When all characters of the text and pattern are same.

txt[] = "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"; 
pat[] = "AAAAA";

2) Worst case also occurs when only the last character is different.

txt[] = "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB"; 
pat[] = "AAAAB";

The number of comparisons in the worst case is O(m*(n-m+1)). Although strings which have repeated characters are not likely to appear in English text, they may well occur in other applications (for example, in binary texts). The KMP matching algorithm improves the worst case to O(n). We will be covering KMP in the next post. Also, we will be writing more posts to cover all pattern searching algorithms and data structures.

Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above.

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My Personal Notes

Recommended: Please solve it on “PRACTICE ” first, before moving on to the solution.

C++

C

Java

C#

PHP

Python3

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