finding repeating patterns

[Dar Scott]

On Aug 26, 2006, at 3:17 PM, jbv wrote:

> Does anyone have (or know of) an algorithm to find repeating
> patterns of characters in a string ?

This brute-force method came to my mind.  Decide on a min and max  
length of patterns.  Try all possible substrings.  (Outer loop is  
start position, inner loop is end char based on min & max length.   
With each one check in an array.  If not there put 1 otherwise  
increment.  Look for counts greater than 1.

If the repeating pattern must come right after the starting pattern,  
then this does not apply.  In that case, just look for the repeats of  
the substring after the trial string.  The problem is that "xaxaxaxa"  
would be counted as a repeating of "xa" and a repeating of "xaxa".

Dar Scott