Manacher's Algorithm is an efficient method for finding the longest palindromic substring in a given string in linear time, specifically . This algorithm works by transforming the original string to handle even-length palindromes uniformly, typically by inserting a special character (like #
) between every character and at the ends. The main idea is to maintain an array that records the radius of palindromes centered at each position and to use symmetry properties of palindromes to minimize unnecessary comparisons.
The algorithm employs two key variables: the center of the rightmost palindrome found so far and the right edge of that palindrome. When processing each character, it uses previously computed values to skip checks whenever possible, thus optimizing the palindrome search process. Ultimately, the algorithm returns the longest palindromic substring efficiently, making it a crucial technique in string processing tasks.
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