Finding the maximum suffix with fewer comparisons
It is shown how to compute the lexicographically maximum suffix of a string of n?2 n ? 2 characters over a totally ordered alphabet using at most (4/3)n?5/3 ( 4 / 3 ) n ? 5 / 3 three-way character comparisons. The best previous bound, which has stood unchallenged for more than 25 years, is (3/2)n?O(1) ( 3 / 2 ) n ? O ( 1 ) comparisons. We also prove an interesting property of an algorithm for computing the maximum suffix both with respect to a total order  .
maximum suffix character comparisons string algorithms