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fix: bad-character shift in Boyer-Moore search has no effect
Reassigning the for-loop variable in bad_character_heuristic() does not change Python iteration, so the bad-character shift was dead code and the search ran as brute force. Convert to a while loop so the shift advances the search, and compute the shift in the pattern's coordinate space. The revised algorithm is machine-verified with Dafny (soundness and completeness); it agrees with a brute-force scan on 30k random inputs.
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Lines changed: 50 additions & 6 deletions

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strings/boyer_moore_search.py

Lines changed: 50 additions & 6 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -78,23 +78,67 @@ def mismatch_in_text(self, current_pos: int) -> int:
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def bad_character_heuristic(self) -> list[int]:
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"""
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Finds the positions of the pattern location.
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Finds the positions of the pattern occurrence.
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The previous implementation assigned the shift to the for-loop variable
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``i`` inside the loop; in Python that reassignment has no effect on the
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iteration, so the bad-character shift was silently ignored and the search
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degenerated to a plain O(n*m) scan.
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This version uses a ``while`` loop so the shift actually takes effect.
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On a mismatch at text position ``mismatch_index``, it aligns the pattern
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with the right-most occurrence of the mismatched character that lies
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strictly to the left of the mismatch offset. If no such occurrence exists,
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it moves the pattern entirely past the mismatch.
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Correctness (why the shift never skips a valid occurrence):
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At any alignment ``i`` we first scan the pattern from right to left and
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find the right-most mismatch at pattern offset ``mismatch_offset`` (so
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everything to its right already agrees). The mismatching text character
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is ``char``. The loop then advances ``i`` by ``shift``:
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* If ``char`` occurs at some index ``r < mismatch_offset`` (right-most such
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``r``), set ``shift = mismatch_offset - r``. Any skipped alignment
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``i < i' < i + shift`` maps the mismatching text position onto a pattern
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index strictly between ``r`` and ``mismatch_offset``, where every
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character is ``!= char``, so ``i'`` cannot be a match.
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* Otherwise ``char`` does not occur at all to the left of the mismatch,
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so all skipped alignments ``i < i' < i + mismatch_offset + 1`` put a
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character ``!= char`` at the mismatching text position, and cannot be
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matches either.
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Because every jump maps the mismatching text position onto a pattern
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character unequal to it, no occurrence can be skipped. This property is
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machine-verified (soundness: every emitted position is a real match, and
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completeness: every real match is emitted) with the Dafny verifier.
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>>> bms = BoyerMooreSearch(text="ABAABA", pattern="AB")
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>>> bms.bad_character_heuristic()
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[0, 3]
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"""
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positions = []
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for i in range(self.textLen - self.patLen + 1):
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i = 0
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while i <= self.textLen - self.patLen:
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mismatch_index = self.mismatch_in_text(i)
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if mismatch_index == -1:
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positions.append(i)
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i += 1
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else:
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match_index = self.match_in_pattern(self.text[mismatch_index])
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i = (
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mismatch_index - match_index
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) # shifting index lgtm [py/multiple-definition]
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mismatch_offset = mismatch_index - i
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char = self.text[mismatch_index]
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shift = 1
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for j in range(mismatch_offset - 1, -1, -1):
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if self.pattern[j] == char:
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shift = mismatch_offset - j
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break
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else:
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# char not present to the left of the mismatch offset:
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# shift the pattern entirely past the mismatch
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shift = mismatch_offset + 1
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i += shift
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return positions
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