How to speed up Levenshtein distance calculation

Question

I am trying to run a simulation to test the average Levenshtein distance between random binary strings.

My program is in python but I am using this C extension. The fun

Answer 1

What you could do is start by learning some OpenMP concepts and directives from this site: A beginner's Primer to OpenMP

You need a compiler that is OpenMP compatible. Here is a list of compilers that work. You will want to use the -fopenmp option when compiling your code.

I've only added the compiler directive #pragma omp parallel for to your code to tell the compiler that the following blocks of code can be run in parallel. You could see addition gains in performance by changing your while loops to for loops, or by applying the OpenMP pattern throughout this function. You can tune the performance by adjusting the number of threads that are used to execute the for loops by using the function omp_set_num_threads() before these blocks. A good number for you to start with is 8 since you will be running on an 8-core processor.

lev_edit_distance(size_t len1, const lev_byte *string1,
              size_t len2, const lev_byte *string2,
              int xcost)
{
  size_t i;
  size_t *row;  /* we only need to keep one row of costs */
  size_t *end;
  size_t half;

 // Set the number of threads the OpenMP framework will use to parallelize the for loops
 omp_set_num_threads(8);

  /* strip common prefix */
  while (len1 > 0 && len2 > 0 && *string1 == *string2) {
    len1--;
    len2--;
    string1++;
    string2++;
  }

  /* strip common suffix */
  while (len1 > 0 && len2 > 0 && string1[len1-1] == string2[len2-1]) {
    len1--;
    len2--;
  }

  /* catch trivial cases */
  if (len1 == 0)
    return len2;
  if (len2 == 0)
    return len1;

  /* make the inner cycle (i.e. string2) the longer one */
  if (len1 > len2) {
    size_t nx = len1;
    const lev_byte *sx = string1;
    len1 = len2;
    len2 = nx;
    string1 = string2;
    string2 = sx;
  }
  /* check len1 == 1 separately */
  if (len1 == 1) {
    if (xcost)
      return len2 + 1 - 2*(memchr(string2, *string1, len2) != NULL);
    else
      return len2 - (memchr(string2, *string1, len2) != NULL);
  }
  len1++;
  len2++;
  half = len1 >> 1;
  /* initalize first row */
  row = (size_t*)malloc(len2*sizeof(size_t));
  if (!row)
    return (size_t)(-1);
  end = row + len2 - 1;

  #pragma omp parallel for
  for (i = 0; i < len2 - (xcost ? 0 : half); i++)
    row[i] = i;

  /* go through the matrix and compute the costs.  yes, this is an extremely
   * obfuscated version, but also extremely memory-conservative and relatively
   * fast.  */
  if (xcost) {
   #pragma omp parallel for
   for (i = 1; i < len1; i++) {
      size_t *p = row + 1;
      const lev_byte char1 = string1[i - 1];
      const lev_byte *char2p = string2;
      size_t D = i;
      size_t x = i;
      while (p <= end) {
        if (char1 == *(char2p++))
          x = --D;
        else
          x++;
        D = *p;
        D++;
        if (x > D)
          x = D;
        *(p++) = x;
      }
    }
  }
  else {
    /* in this case we don't have to scan two corner triangles (of size len1/2)
     * in the matrix because no best path can go throught them. note this
     * breaks when len1 == len2 == 2 so the memchr() special case above is
     * necessary */
    row[0] = len1 - half - 1;
    #pragma omp parallel for
    for (i = 1; i < len1; i++) {
      size_t *p;
      const lev_byte char1 = string1[i - 1];
      const lev_byte *char2p;
      size_t D, x;
      /* skip the upper triangle */
      if (i >= len1 - half) {
        size_t offset = i - (len1 - half);
        size_t c3;

        char2p = string2 + offset;
        p = row + offset;
        c3 = *(p++) + (char1 != *(char2p++));
        x = *p;
        x++;
        D = x;
        if (x > c3)
          x = c3;
        *(p++) = x;
      }
      else {
        p = row + 1;
        char2p = string2;
        D = x = i;
      }
      /* skip the lower triangle */
      if (i <= half + 1)
        end = row + len2 + i - half - 2;
      /* main */
      while (p <= end) {
        size_t c3 = --D + (char1 != *(char2p++));
        x++;
        if (x > c3)
          x = c3;
        D = *p;
        D++;
        if (x > D)
          x = D;
        *(p++) = x;
      }
      /* lower triangle sentinel */
       if (i <= half) {
        size_t c3 = --D + (char1 != *char2p);
        x++;
        if (x > c3)
          x = c3;
        *p = x;
      }
    }
  }

  i = *end;
  free(row);
  return i;
}

You can also do reduction operations on variables that are being operated on in your for loops too in order to provide simple parallel calculations like sum, multiply, etc.

int main()
{
    int i = 0,
        j = 0,
        sum = 0;
    char str1[30]; // Change size to fit your specifications
    char str2[30];

    #pragma omp parallel for
    for(i=0;i<16;i++)
    {
        sum = 0;
            // Could do a reduction on sum across all threads
        for(j=0;j<1000;j++)
        {
            // Calls will have to be changed
            // I don't know much Python so I'll leave that to the experts 
            str1 = bin(random.getrandbits(2**i))[2:].zfill(2**i)
            str2 = bin(random.getrandbits(2**i))[2:].zfill(2**i)
            sum += distance(str1,str2)
        }
        printf("%d %d",i,(sum/(1000*2*i)));
    }
}