Table 1.

Applications of prefix-free parsing

CategorySubcategoryPaperContribution
Data structureBWT, SA, LCPBoucher et al. (2019), Kuhnle et al. (2020), and Rossi et al. (2022)Builds the BWT, SA, and LCP using PFP
BWT, SA, LCPOliva et al. (2023) and Ferro et al. (2024)Builds the BWT, SA, and LCP using recursive PFP
eBWTBoucher et al. (2021a, 2024)Computes the extended BWT (eBWT) for a collection of strings using PFP
BWTDíaz-Domínguez et al. (2025)Shows how to merge BWTs built with PFP
Compressed suffix treeBoucher et al. (2021b) and Oliva et al. (2022)Shows how PFP output can be modified to support full suffix tree functionality
String matchingMEMsRossi et al. (2022) and Boucher et al. (2024)Computes maximal exact matches (MEMs) using data structures built with PFP
MEMs, MUMsShivakumar and Langmead (2025)Computes maximal exact (MEM) or unique (MUM) matches across sequences using data structures built with PFP
MEMs, full read alignmentVarki et al. (2025)MEM-based short-read aligner built on index constructed with PFP
MSBoucher et al. (2021c) and Rossi et al. (2022)Computes matching statistics (MS) with data structures built with PFP
PMLsAhmed et al. (2021, 2023)Computes an approximation of MS called pseudomatching lengths (PMLs) using data structures built from PFP
LF-mapping, BWTHong et al. (2024)Shows that leveraging PFP phrases for LF-mapping yields better performance than standard character-level LF-mapping
CompressionLZ77Hong et al. (2023)Constructs LZ77 factorization using PFP
RePairGagie et al. (2019)Builds RePair grammar from PFP output
RePairKim et al. (2024)Builds RePair grammar from recursive PFP output

[i] The table highlights a subset of works that use PFP, categorized by their primary contribution. Although grouped by category, many of these papers build on one another, resulting in significant overlap.