DROPS

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.9

Linear Time Subsequence and Supersequence Regex Matching

Authors: Antoine Amarilli, Florin Manea, Tina Ringleb, and Markus L. Schmid

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)

Abstract

It is well-known that checking whether a given string w matches a given regular expression r can be done in quadratic time O(|w|⋅ |r|) and that this cannot be improved to a truly subquadratic running time of O((|w|⋅ |r|)^{1-ε}) assuming the strong exponential time hypothesis (SETH). We study a different matching paradigm where we ask instead whether w has a subsequence that matches r, and show that regex matching in this sense can be solved in linear time O(|w| + |r|). Further, the same holds if we ask for a supersequence. We show that the quantitative variants where we want to compute a longest or shortest subsequence or supersequence of w that matches r can be solved in O(|w|⋅ |r|), i. e., asymptotically no worse than classical regex matching; and we show that O(|w| + |r|) is conditionally not possible for these problems. We also investigate these questions with respect to other natural string relations like the infix, prefix, left-extension or extension relation instead of the subsequence and supersequence relation. We further study the complexity of the universal problem where we ask if all subsequences (or supersequences, infixes, prefixes, left-extensions or extensions) of an input string satisfy a given regular expression.

Cite as

Antoine Amarilli, Florin Manea, Tina Ringleb, and Markus L. Schmid. Linear Time Subsequence and Supersequence Regex Matching. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 9:1-9:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{amarilli_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.9,
  author =	{Amarilli, Antoine and Manea, Florin and Ringleb, Tina and Schmid, Markus L.},
  title =	{{Linear Time Subsequence and Supersequence Regex Matching}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-241162},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: subsequence, supersequence, regular language, regular expression, automata}
}

Search Results

Documents authored by Ringleb, Tina

Linear Time Subsequence and Supersequence Regex Matching

Abstract

Cite as

Thanks for your feedback!

Could not send message