We present a fast and simple algorithm that allows the extraction of multiple exponential signals from the temporal dependence of correlation functions evaluated on the lattice including the statistical fluctuations of each signal and treating properly backward signals. The basic steps of the method are the inversion of appropriate matrices and the determination of the roots of an appropriate polynomial, constructed using discretized derivatives of the correlation function. The method is tested strictly using fake data generated assuming a fixed number of exponential signals included in the correlation function with a controlled numerical precision and within given statistical fluctuations. All the exponential signals together with their statistical uncertainties are determined exactly by the algorithm. The only limiting factor is the numerical rounding off. In the case of correlation functions evaluated by large-scale QCD simulations on the lattice various sources of noise, other than the numerical rounding, can affect the correlation function and they represent the crucial factor limiting the number of exponential signals, related to the hadronic spectral decomposition of the correlation function, that can be properly extracted. The algorithm can be applied to a large variety of correlation functions typically encountered in QCD or QCD+QED simulations on the lattice, including the case of exponential signals corresponding to poles with arbitrary multiplicity and/or the case of oscillating signals. The method is able to to detect the specific structure of the multiple exponential signals without any a priori assumption and it determines accurately the ground-state signal without the need that the lattice temporal extension is large enough to allow the ground-state signal to be isolated.
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