Boyer Moore Horspool Search Algorithm in Go I am practicing Go and try to implement Boyer Moore Horspool Algorithm in Go, It returns all ocurrance of a "phrase" in a given text. This code is working, but I would be pleased to have any feedback and suggestions from Go Gurus, about all aspect of my code.

package boyer_moore_horspool_search


type badMatchTable struct{
    table [256]int
    pattern string
}

func newBadMatchTable(pattern string) *badMatchTable{
    b := badMatchTable{
        pattern: pattern,
    }

    b.table = [256]int{}
    b.table = b.generateTable()

    return &amp;b
}

func (b *badMatchTable) generateTable() [256]int{

    for i := 0; i &lt; 256 ; i++  {
        b.table[i] = len(b.pattern)
    }

    lastPatternByte := len(b.pattern) - 1

    for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte ; i++  {
        b.table[int(b.pattern[i])] = lastPatternByte - i
    }

    return b.table
}

func Search(text string, pattern string) []int{

    var indexes []int
    byteText := []byte(text)
    bytePattern := []byte(pattern)

    textLength := len(byteText)
    patternLength := len(bytePattern)


    if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength{
        return indexes
    }

    lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1

    mt := newBadMatchTable(pattern)
    index := 0
    for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength)  {
        for i := lastPatternByte ; byteText[index + i] == bytePattern[i]; i-- {
            if i == 0{
                indexes = append(indexes, index)
                break
            }
        }

        index += mt.table[byteText[index + lastPatternByte]]
    }

    return indexes
}


And this is the test file:

import (
    "fmt"
    "testing"
)

func TestSearch(t *testing.T) {

    indexes := Search("Hello, we want to find word Guru, so this #phrase has the word Guru.", "word Guru")

    fmt.Printf("Occurance: %v\n", len(indexes))
    for _, i := range indexes  {
        fmt.Printf("Index: %v\n", i)
    }

}
I added

func BenchmarkSearch(b *testing.B) {
    c := "Hello, we want to find word Guru, so this #phrase has the word Guru."
    s := "word Guru"
    for i := 0; i &lt; b.N; i++ {
        Search(c, s)
    }
}


Then i ran

$ go test -v -bench=. -benchmem -memprofile=mem.out


It yielded 

goos: linux
goarch: amd64
pkg: test/boyermoor
BenchmarkSearch-4        2000000           780 ns/op         104 B/op          3 allocs/op
PASS
ok      test/boyermoor  2.360s


Now i open pprof to get detailed stats

$ go tool pprof mem.out

(pprof) list Sear
Total: 268.52MB
ROUTINE ======================== test/boyermoor.BenchmarkSearch in /home/mh-cbon/gow/src/test/boyermoor/main_test.go
         0   268.52MB (flat, cum)   100% of Total
         .          .     18:
         .          .     19:func BenchmarkSearch(b *testing.B) {
         .          .     20:   c := "Hello, we want to find word Guru, so this #phrase has the word Guru."
         .          .     21:   s := "word Guru"
         .          .     22:   for i := 0; i &lt; b.N; i++ {
         .   268.52MB     23:       Search(c, s)
         .          .     24:   }
         .          .     25:}
ROUTINE ======================== test/boyermoor.Search in /home/mh-cbon/gow/src/test/boyermoor/main.go
  268.52MB   268.52MB (flat, cum)   100% of Total
         .          .     36:}
         .          .     37:
         .          .     38:func Search(text string, pattern string) []int {
         .          .     39:
         .          .     40:   var indexes []int
  208.52MB   208.52MB     41:   byteText := []byte(text)
         .          .     42:   bytePattern := []byte(pattern)
         .          .     43:
         .          .     44:   textLength := len(byteText)
         .          .     45:   patternLength := len(bytePattern)
         .          .     46:
         .          .     47:   if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength {
         .          .     48:       return indexes
         .          .     49:   }
         .          .     50:
         .          .     51:   lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1
         .          .     52:
         .          .     53:   mt := newBadMatchTable(pattern)
         .          .     54:   index := 0
         .          .     55:   for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength) {
         .          .     56:       for i := lastPatternByte; byteText[index+i] == bytePattern[i]; i-- {
         .          .     57:           if i == 0 {
      60MB       60MB     58:               indexes = append(indexes, index)
         .          .     59:               break
         .          .     60:           }
         .          .     61:       }
         .          .     62:
         .          .     63:       index += mt.table[byteText[index+lastPatternByte]]


You have allocations that are totally superfluous, given current test case, and they could be avoided by changing the input parameters types.

Lets give it a try

The code is updated to

package main

func main() {

}

type badMatchTable struct {
    table   [256]int
    pattern []byte
}

func newBadMatchTable(pattern []byte) *badMatchTable {
    b := badMatchTable{
        pattern: pattern,
    }

    b.table = [256]int{}
    b.table = b.generateTable()

    return &amp;b
}

func (b *badMatchTable) generateTable() [256]int {

    for i := 0; i &lt; 256; i++ {
        b.table[i] = len(b.pattern)
    }

    lastPatternByte := len(b.pattern) - 1

    for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte; i++ {
        b.table[int(b.pattern[i])] = lastPatternByte - i
    }

    return b.table
}

func Search(text, pattern []byte) []int {

    var indexes []int

    textLength := len(text)
    patternLength := len(pattern)

    if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength {
        return indexes
    }

    lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1

    mt := newBadMatchTable(pattern)
    index := 0
    for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength) {
        for i := lastPatternByte; text[index+i] == pattern[i]; i-- {
            if i == 0 {
                indexes = append(indexes, index)
                break
            }
        }

        index += mt.table[text[index+lastPatternByte]]
    }

    return indexes
}


I behncmarked again

$ go test -v -bench=. -benchmem -memprofile=mem.out
goos: linux
goarch: amd64
pkg: test/boyermoor
BenchmarkSearch-4        2000000           669 ns/op          24 B/op          2 allocs/op
PASS
ok      test/boyermoor  2.023s


Those are small improvements.

I change the code again to remove the int slice allocation

package boyermoor

type badMatchTable struct {
    table   [256]int
    pattern []byte
}

func newBadMatchTable(pattern []byte) *badMatchTable {
    b := badMatchTable{
        pattern: pattern,
    }

    b.table = [256]int{}
    b.table = b.generateTable()

    return &amp;b
}

func (b *badMatchTable) generateTable() [256]int {

    for i := 0; i &lt; 256; i++ {
        b.table[i] = len(b.pattern)
    }

    lastPatternByte := len(b.pattern) - 1

    for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte; i++ {
        b.table[int(b.pattern[i])] = lastPatternByte - i
    }

    return b.table
}

func Search(text, pattern []byte, indexes []int) []int {

    // var indexes []int
    indexes = indexes[:0]

    textLength := len(text)
    patternLength := len(pattern)

    if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength {
        return indexes
    }

    lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1

    mt := newBadMatchTable(pattern)
    index := 0
    for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength) {
        for i := lastPatternByte; text[index+i] == pattern[i]; i-- {
            if i == 0 {
                indexes = append(indexes, index)
                break
            }
        }

        index += mt.table[text[index+lastPatternByte]]
    }

    return indexes
}


The benchmark is modified to

func BenchmarkSearch(b *testing.B) {
    indexes := make([]int, 0, 100)
    c := []byte("Hello, we want to find word Guru, so this #phrase has the word Guru.")
    s := []byte("word Guru")
    for i := 0; i &lt; b.N; i++ {
        indexes = Search(c, s, indexes)
    }
}


Now i got

goos: linux
goarch: amd64
pkg: test/boyermoor
BenchmarkSearch-4        3000000           597 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
PASS
ok      test/boyermoor  2.402s


That is more substantial.

In the details, you rewrite the generateTable this way to save a few more ops

func (b *badMatchTable) generateTable() [256]int {

    k := len(b.pattern)
    for i := 0; i &lt; 256; i++ {
        b.table[i] = k
    }

    lastPatternByte := k - 1

    for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte; i++ {
        b.table[b.pattern[i]] = lastPatternByte - i
    }

    return b.table
}


At that point, consider that your algorithm is 1/ cpu bound 2/ a bunch of tight loops. So to get much out of the runtime, squeeze as many instructions as possible.

Given the last state of the code, let just get ride of the badTable struct. So the whole thing is contained into one function call.

func Search(text, pattern []byte, indexes []int) []int {

    // var indexes []int
    indexes = indexes[:0]

    textLength := len(text)
    patternLength := len(pattern)

    if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength {
        return indexes
    }

    lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1

    table := [256]int{}
    {
        k := len(pattern)
        for i := 0; i &lt; 256; i++ {
            table[i] = k
        }

        lastPatternByte := k - 1
        for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte; i++ {
            table[pattern[i]] = lastPatternByte - i
        }
    }

    index := 0
    for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength) {
        for i := lastPatternByte; text[index+i] == pattern[i]; i-- {
            if i == 0 {
                indexes = append(indexes, index)
                break
            }
        }

        index += table[text[index+lastPatternByte]]
    }

    return indexes
}


And now it gives us

goos: linux
goarch: amd64
pkg: test/boyermoor
BenchmarkSearch-4        5000000           339 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
BenchmarkSearch-4        5000000           340 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
BenchmarkSearch-4        5000000           341 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
BenchmarkSearch-4        5000000           338 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
PASS


Now we have a good 2 times improvement.

But this is not all about performance, it is also about usability for other devs. So the API can be presented this way, which produces a decent trade between the two.

type Horspool struct {
    table   [256]int
    indexes []int
}

func (t *Horspool) Search(text, pattern []byte) []int {

    table := t.table
    indexes := t.indexes
    if cap(indexes) &lt; 1 {
        indexes = make([]int, 0, 100)
    }
    indexes = indexes[:0]

    textLength := len(text)
    patternLength := len(pattern)

    if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength {
        t.indexes = indexes
        return indexes
    }

    lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1

    {
        for i := 0; i &lt; 256; i++ {
            table[i] = patternLength
        }

        lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1
        for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte; i++ {
            table[pattern[i]] = lastPatternByte - i
        }
    }

    index := 0
    for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength) {
        for i := lastPatternByte; text[index+i] == pattern[i]; i-- {
            if i == 0 {
                indexes = append(indexes, index)
                break
            }
        }

        index += table[text[index+lastPatternByte]]
    }
    t.indexes = indexes
    return indexes
}


It gives me a slightly slower program

BenchmarkSearch-4        5000000           370 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op


I have not tried to understand as to why it is slower because here is a more interesting case involving struct alignment and padding. See this code,

type Horspool struct {
    indexes []int
    table   [256]int
}


And check the results

BenchmarkSearch-4        3000000           480 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op


read more: https://dave.cheney.net/2015/10/09/padding-is-hard

FTR, consider this is an old algorithm and that it is not utf-8 valid. Go being utf-8 first, this should be improved.

If my understanding of the algorithm is correct, the fix is rather simple

type Horspool struct {
    table   map[rune]int
    indexes []int
}

func (t *Horspool) Search(text, pattern []rune) []int {

    table := t.table
    if table == nil {
        table = map[rune]int{}
    } else {
        for r := range table {
            delete(table, r)
        }
    }
    indexes := t.indexes
    if cap(indexes) &lt; 1 {
        indexes = make([]int, 0, 100)
    }
    indexes = indexes[:0]

    textLength := len(text)
    patternLength := len(pattern)

    if textLength == 0 || patternLength == 0 || patternLength &gt; textLength {
        return indexes
    }

    lastPatternByte := patternLength - 1

    {
        for _, r := range pattern {
            table[r] = patternLength
        }

        for i := 0; i &lt; lastPatternByte; i++ {
            table[pattern[i]] = patternLength - 1 - i
        }
    }

    index := 0
    for index &lt;= (textLength - patternLength) {
        for i := lastPatternByte; text[index+i] == pattern[i]; i-- {
            if i == 0 {
                indexes = append(indexes, index)
                break
            }
        }
        x, ok := table[text[index+lastPatternByte]]
        if ok {
            index += x
        } else {
            index += lastPatternByte
        }
    }
    t.table = table
    t.indexes = indexes
    return indexes
}


But, take care of maps. 
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58475257/map-delete-doesnt-actually-delete-entries

Use a simple counter to free-it-by-allocation regularly.

Finally, as somewhat expected the code is slower by a factor 2

goos: linux
goarch: amd64
pkg: test/boyermoor
BenchmarkSearch-4        2000000           756 ns/op           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
PASS
ok      test/boyermoor  2.282s


Two notes:


There might be more interesting/subtle optimizations that i m not aware of myself, i did the obvious.