Rabin-Karp is inferior to [[Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm]], [[Boyer-Moore string searching algorithm]] and other faster single pattern [[string searchsearching algorithm]]s because of its slow worst case behavior. However, Rabin-Karp is an algorithm of choice for multiple pattern search. That is, if we want to find any of a large number, say k, fixed length patterns in a text, a variant Rabin-Karp that uses a [[hash table]] to check whether the hash of a given string belongs to a set of hash values of patterns we are looking for. Other algorithms can search for a single pattern in time order n, hence they will search for k patterns in time order n*k. The variant Rabin-Karp will still work in time order n in the best and average case because a hash table allows to check whether or not substring hash equals any of the pattern hashes in order of 1 time.
