This chapter presents the algorithmic and combinatorial framework in which are developed the following chapters. It first specifies the concepts and notation used to work on strings, languages, and automata. The rest is mainly devoted to the introduction of chosen data structures for implementing automata, to the presentation of combinatorial results, and to the design of elementary pattern matching techniques. This organization is based on the observation that efficient algorithms for text processing rely on one or the other of these aspects.

Section 1.2 provides some combinatorial properties of strings that occur in numerous correctness proofs of algorithms or in their performance evaluation. They are mainly periodicity results.

The formalism for the description of algorithms is presented in Section 1.3, which is especially centered on the type of algorithm presented in the book, and introduces some standard objects related to queues and automata processing.

Section 1.4 details several methods to implement automata in memory, these techniques contribute, in particular, to results of Chapters 2, 5, and 6.

The first algorithms for locating strings in texts are presented in Section 1.5. The sliding window mechanism, the notions of search automaton and of bit vectors that are described in this section are also used and improved in Chapters 2, 3, and 8, in particular.