Suffix arrays: What are they good for?

Recently the theoretical community has displayed a flurry of interest in suffix arrays, and compressed suffix arrays. New, asymptotically optimal algorithms for construction, search, and compression of suffix arrays have been proposed. In this talk we will present our investigations into the practicalities of these latest developments. In particular, we investigate whether suffix arrays can indeed replace inverted files, as suggested in recent literature on suffix arrays. © 2006, Australian Computer Society, Inc.