How can I extract similarities/patterns from a collection of binary strings?

Posted by JohnIdol on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by JohnIdol
Published on 2010-05-12T00:13:23Z Indexed on 2010/05/12 0:24 UTC
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I have a collection of binary strings of given size encoding effective solutions to a given problem.

By looking at them, I can spot obvious similarities and intuitively see patterns of symmetry and periodicity.

Are there mathematical/algorithmic tools I can "feed" this set of strings to and get results that might give me an idea of what this set of strings have in common?

By doing so I would be able to impose a structure (or at least favor some features over others) on candidate solutions in order to greatly reduce the search space, maximizing chances to find optimal solutions for my problem (I am using genetic algorithms as the search tool - but this is not pivotal to the question).

Any pointers/approaches appreciated.

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