c-trie++: A Dynamic Trie Tailored for Fast Prefix Searches

Abstract

Given a dynamic set $K$ of $k$ strings of total length $n$ whose characters are drawn from an alphabet of size $σ$, a keyword dictionary is a data structure built on $K$ that provides locate, prefix search, and update operations on $K$. Under the assumption that $α= w / \lg σ$ characters fit into a single machine word $w$, we propose a keyword dictionary that represents $K$ in $n \lg σ+ Θ(k \lg n)$ bits of space, supporting all operations in $O(m / α+ \lg α)$ expected time on an input string of length $m$ in the word RAM model. This data structure is underlined with an exhaustive practical evaluation, highlighting the practical usefulness of the proposed data structure, especially for prefix searches - one of the most elementary keyword dictionary operations.