Implementing dynamic minimal‐prefix tries

Abstract A modified trie‐searching algorithm and corresponding data structure are introduced which permit rapid search of a dictionary for a symbol or a valid abbreviation. The dictionary‐insertion algorithm automatically determines disambiguation points, where possible, for each symbol. The search operation will classify a symbol as one of the following: unknown (i.e. not a valid symbol), ambiguous (i.e. is a prefix of more than one valid symbol) or known. The search operation is performed in linear time proportional to the length of the input symbol, rather than the complexity of the trie. An example implementation is given in the C programming language.